Betty Virginia (Carringer) Seaver
Betty Virginia (Carringer) Seaver (1919-2002) was a San Diego native, a loving daughter, granddaughter, student, wife, mother, grandmother, artist and friend.
Betty Virginia Carringer (1919-2002) was born in San Diego, California, the only child of Lyle Lawrence and Emily Kemp (Auble) Carringer. The Carringer home was at 2130 Fern Street in San Diego, on the same block as Lyle's parents who resided at 2115 30th Street.
She grew up in the heart of San Diego, CA during the time the city matured from a sleepy town to a major metropolis. The Carringer home was located in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of San Diego, on the block bounded by 30th Street on the west, Hawthorn Street on the south, Fern Street on the east, and Ivy Street on the north, just four blocks from the eastern edge of Balboa Park (see the accompanying map). A garden with a playhouse (known as "Mi Casita") and a greenhouse with many plants, shrubs, and trees were located in the center of the block. A vacant lot with vegetable plants, fruit trees and berry bushes occupied the south end of the block until 1953.
The streetcar from downtown San Diego to North Park ran up the middle of 30th Street; there was a fire station in the next block to the north; a Piggly Wiggly market was a block north, next to the drugstore at the northeast corner of 30th Street and Juniper Street. Single family homes, some of them with grandparents living with their children, dotted the city blocks along with several apartment houses with two or four flats. There were hills and canyons in every direction, making Brooklyn Heights a unique neighborhood. From the second floor apartment at 2119 30th Street, one could look southwest toward downtown San Diego and out past Coronado Island to the Pacific Ocean. The San Diego Zoo, the Museum of Man, the Natural History Museum and the San Diego Art Museum were in the middle of Balboa Park. Betty spent many hours in that cultural mecca. The carillon from the California Tower could be heard at the house on Fern Street, as could the animal sounds from the Zoo.
As a child, Betty attended Brooklyn Elementary School at 30th and Ash Streets. She grew up tall, slim, pretty and somewhat shy, with a lovely smile and a warm heart. For entertainment, Betty played in the playhouse with her friends, went skating, and on Sundays her family took rides in the car to the country, including Idyllwild, El Monte Park and Dehesa with family friends. They often went to the Los Angeles area to visit the Kemp and Pentecost families, who were extended family. As a young girl, the ZooNooZ publication of the San Diego Zoological Society published a photograph of Betty in her father's arms riding on an elephant at the Zoo.
She went to Woodrow Wilson Junior High School on El Cajob Boulevanrd, then attended San Diego High School at the corner of 12th Avenue and Russ Boulevard on the southern edge of Balboa Park, graduating in the class of 1936. Social activities included horseback riding, playing tennis, going to the beach, going to dances, including her Senior Prom.
Betty entered San Diego State College in the fall of 1936, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in June 1940. She was a member of Phi Sigma Nu sorority, and many of her sorority sisters were lifelong friends. She was an active artist during her college years and later in her life.
After college graduation, Betty's first job was as an Art teacher at Woodrow Wilson Junior High School on El Cajon Blvd. One of her students there was Marcia Chamberlain, whose cousin Fred Seaver had come to San Diego and lived with her family. One night, Marcia invited Betty to dinner at her home, and there Betty met Fred. A romance blossomed.
The wedding announcement in the San Diego Union newspaper on 5 April 1942 (page 41, accessed on www.GenealogyBank.com) reads:
"Mr. and Mrs. Lyle L. Carringer announce the engagement of their daughter, Betty Virginia, lower left, to Frederick Walton Seaver jr., son of Mrs. F.W. Seaver and the late F.W. Seaver, Leominster, Mass.
"Miss Carringer is a graduate of San Diego State college, where she affiliated with Phi Sigma Nu sorority. She is teaching in the San Diego city schools.
"Mr. Seaver is a graduate of Worcester (Mass.) Academy, and attended Dartmouth college. He is now associated with an aircraft corporation.
"The wedding date has been set for July 11. (Miss Carringer's photo by Maxwell)."
They married Sunday, July 12, 1942 at 3 o'clock at All Saint's Episcopal Church in San Diego. The best man was Marshall Chamberlain and the matron of honor was Eleanor Steddom. They honeymooned in Laguna Beach, and started married life together at 577 Twin Oaks Avenue in Chula Vista. Betty and Fred worked at Rohr Corporation in Chula Vista in the early years of World War II.
After Randy's birth in 1943, Betty taught at Pacific Beach Junior High School and Memorial Junior High School in San Diego while Fred was in the Navy. Stanley was born in 1946, and Scott was born in 1955. The family moved into 2119 30th Street, in the flat above Betty's parents, in 1947 and that was her home until 1977 when they moved to Point Loma after Betty's parents died.
When Randy and Stan attended Brooklyn Elementary School, Betty was involved in the PTA, using her art background to support the school activities. Betty did some substitute teaching after the boys started school, and enjoyed going on art outings with Dorothy Chamberlain and other friends. Betty again participated in Brooklyn School PTA all through Scott's years there.
Throughout the late 1950s and 1960s, the main family activity was Little League, Pony League and Colt League baseball games. Fred managed teams, Stanley and Scott played, Randy coached during the 1960s. As a wife and mother, she managed to feed, educate and love her husband and three active sons, and did it all with seeming ease, patience and grace.
In the 1970's, as the children started their own families, Betty found more time for her artwork, especially enameling on copper. She bought a kiln to fire her beautiful pieces, including many angels and birds designed as ornaments, plates or wall hangings. She joined the Allied Craftsmen and the Enamel Guild and volunteered periodically at the Spanish Village in Balboa Park. She showed and sold pieces in commercial art galleries, and gave her children and grandchildren enameled ornaments at Christmas time, and commemorative plates for special occasions.
After Fred's death in 1983, Betty continued to enjoy her enameling, visiting with friends, and being with her family. She renewed her membership in her sorority, Sigma Alpha Nu, and enjoyed going to and hosting monthly meetings with the group.
She loved and adored her four grandchildren - Lori, Tami, Molly and Lisa. As the grandgirls grew up, she hosted "Grandma and the girls" days at her home with art projects and imparted wisdom and love to them. She told her granddaughter, Lori Lee Seaver, in an interview in 1984, that her philosophy of life is to be kind to everybody. She said that her heroes were Charles A. Lindbergh and General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Betty was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1982, and underwent several surgeries during the next 19 years. In late 2001, she became short of breath due to fluids accumulating in her right lung. The doctor diagnosed lung cancer. The lung was drained twice, but then she said that she wanted no other surgeries or procedures. She lived with son Stan and his wife Holly for the last month of her life. The family was able to say their goodbyes at Christmas time, and she died in her sleep on the morning of 4 January 2002.
She is buried with Fred at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery on Point Loma in San Diego.