Born in Mason County, her parents were Hans Sell and Lottie Polk. She attended school at Peter’s Prairie School near Katemcy and Mason High School, where she was a guard on the basketball team and a bugler in the drum and bugle corps. She went on to earn a bachelor’s degree at the Texas State College for Women in Denton, now Texas Woman’s University, in 1948. She taught junior high English in Mason and Fredericksburg, where she met her future husband, T.J. Chapman. On their first date (on her 21st birthday), he took her out for her first legal beer. They were married in the Little Chapel in-the-Woods on the TSCW campus. They lived in Fredericksburg, Mason, Brady, and Midland, where she continued teaching. Betty and T.J., along with three children, moved to Austin in 1964.

After raising her kids to meet her exacting standards and sending them off into the world, she joined her husband in managing Boon-Chapman, which was a pioneer in administering self-funded, employer-sponsored health plans. She worked there for 22 years before retiring in 2004. During her tenure, she became friends with many of her employees and clients, including members of Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, an Austin-based professional society for women educators, who were located across the country.

Betty Chapman was a faithful member of Covenant Presbyterian Church since joining in 1968. She did volunteer work for the Settlement Club, Meals on Wheels, Reading for Adults, Drive a Senior and Covenant’s Prayer Shawl Ministry and was president of the Sierra Verde Garden Club. She enjoyed bridge, tennis, golf and reading.

She and T.J., a graduate of Texas A&M, were fervent Aggies, attending every home football game for 40 years. Their travels took them to all 50 states, 38 countries and every presidential library and museum in America. They also enjoyed spending time at their country home in Mason County, which had been in Betty’s family for over a century.

Betty said her love and pride were her family – and, by her account, talked about their successes to a fault. She was preceded in death by her husband, her brothers Dorman and Gordon, and her sisters Jane and Helen. She is survived by daughter MarrGwen and her husband Stuart Townsend, of Aspen, Colorado; son Steve and his wife Cyn Mycoskie, of Lake Forest, Illinois; and son Kevin and his wife Rhonda, of Austin. She was devoted to her five grandchildren and their spouses: Ross and Kate Chapman, Keith and Alexandra Chapman, Daniel Chapman, Isabelle Chapman and David Uberti, and Ali and Patrick Sullivan. They blessed her with seven beloved great-grandchildren.

She is buried at Austin Memorial Park Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Bethel Cemetery Memorial Fund Inc., ℅ Kathy Tallent, 12414 N US Hwy. 87, Mason, TX 76856, or to the The Settlement Home for Children at 1600 Payton Gin Road, Austin, 78758.