Betty Lou (Kidwell) Bray

Betty Lou (Kidwell) Bray, age 87, of Bedford, Kentucky, passed away on Friday, April 19, 2024 at River Terrace Health Campus in Madison, Indiana. She was born March 30, 1937 in Switzerland County, the daughter of Grant and Irene (Scudder) Kidwell. Mrs. Bray was a 1955 graduate of Central High School on Ryker’s Ridge in Madison. She met Niles Bray near the end of high school and they were married the year after high school graduation, at 19 years old. After Betty & Niles married and moved to the farm in Bedford Kentucky Niles’ grandmother, Carrie Terrell Bray, took Betty under her wing and taught her all the ways to provide for her family. Carrie was a great resource for Betty. She learned how to can all fruits and vegetables, how to make butter, and anything that Betty needed to feed her family. Betty often labored in the fields right beside the boys and then went home to feed everyone including her 4 children. Betty was the absolute best cook. She cooked all the meals, adding a little spice here and sugar there. When there were hired hands to help on the farm, they were always invited to her table. Betty was the queen of yeast rolls. They were always so light and delicious, still one of Niles’ favorites. Also, in those early days, there were plenty of fun times in the winter. Processing hogs happened in wintertime when Betty would make the best sausage. She would go get her electric skillet and fry some up right there in the garage on the wagon for everyone to enjoy a sandwich. If you had the privilege of being there, you can smell it now. Betty and Niles sold the meat they raised with love to their neighbors and community to help pay the bills. She loved people and she enjoyed talking to everyone at the market house every Summer. For three months a year, seven days a week, she was in charge of selling their peach and fruit harvests at the market house on 421 N. She enjoyed visiting with her loyal and loving customers who came back year after year for those delicious Bray peaches. If people would stop to visit, she made sure that they came in and got something to eat. Betty also enjoyed sewing, knitting, and crocheting. She outfitted herself and her family with anything they needed and then gave away or sold anything extra that she’d crafted. The beautiful flowers she potted and planted around the market house were a product of her gardening hobby and green thumb. At their home she always had beaucoups of fresh herbs and flowers decorating the porch, lawn, and garden. For fun in her younger days she rode motorcycles and horses. After a couple tropical vacations she returned with lots of funny stories and a love for Caribbean music. She was a vibrant and fun-loving spirit, a steady and loyal wife, mother, and grandmother, the matriarch who kept it all together, juggling all the balls at once, she was her family’s star player. She is sorely missed and mourned.

Her surviving family includes her husband, Niles Bray, to whom she was married on May 25, 1956; two sons: Michael Bray and his fiancé, Terri Eisele, and Mark Bray and his wife, Judy; one daughter, Melinda Castor and her husband, Tony; and six grandchildren: Amy Bray, Kara Smith, Jesse Bray, Dustin Bray and his wife, Amanda, Chelsie Oko-Osi and her husband, Alex, and Kearstin Bruther.

She was preceded in death by her parents, one son, Kevin Bray; and one brother, William E. Kidwell.

Memorial services were held on Sunday, April 21, 2024, at Ransdell Funeral Home, Bedford.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Trimble County animal Shelter or Arbor Day Foundation.

Ransdell Funeral Home, Bedford, is in charge of the arrangements. ransdellfuneral.com.