Betty Jo Worrell Herrell, 95, of the Harrell Hill community in Bakersville, North Carolina, died peacefully at home in the early morning of the winter solstice, December 21, 2025, surrounded by her family.
She was born on August 18, 1930, in Lambsburg, Virginia to Montgomery and Sally Seal Worrell. She was one of four children: two older sisters, Elsie Mae and Polly, and a younger brother, Raymond.
Throughout her life she carried fond memories of growing up in Surry County, North Carolina, including her father carrying the mail, neighbors gathering on the family porch to play music, and making ice cream after storms when her father collected hail. She met Bruce Jesse Herrell when he worked at her former high school in Low Gap, coaching her younger brother’s basketball team. They met at a Halloween dance at the school, and coincidentally were later married on October 31,1953.
After they married, they moved to Bruce’s homeplace in Bakersville and built a home together. There, she raised two children while working on the family dairy farm. She was also a gifted seamstress, sewing quilts, clothes for her daughters, and play clothes for her grandchildren. She tended her garden with care and patience, filling shelves with beautiful canned fruits and vegetables. She loved growing flowers, especially her zinnias, and was still tending to her grandmother’s Christmas cactus in her later years.
Betty Jo found joy, beauty, and comfort in nature, always noticing and commenting on the moon in the morning and the stars before bedtime. She collected arrowheads from her gardens and always asked her family to bring stones or seashells as souvenirs from travel. She fed and watched hummingbirds from her porch and hosted picnics beneath the maple tree in her yard when the weather turned warm. She loved small, simple moments like quiet, early mornings and afternoon tea.
Betty Jo was a deeply selfless, giving person, and she leaves behind a family shaped by her steadiness, her humor, and her deep love for the natural world. We will miss her in the everyday moments: in gardens and birdsong, in fabric and flowers, in the quiet habit of looking up at the sky. Her life was not loud, but it was rich, rooted, and full of care. Its light continues in all who loved her.
She is survived by her daughter Sandy (Mitch), her daughter Betsy, granddaughter Meg, and grandson Alex (Christina).
The family would like to thank Hospice and Home Care of the Blue Ridge, especially her nurse, Lisa Guinn, who was with the family the night and morning of her passing.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial donations be made to Hospice and Home Care of the Blue Ridge, 236 Hospital Drive, Spruce Pine, North Carolina 28777.
Words of comfort may be e-mailed to the family by going to the website; www.webbfh.com, selecting Betty Jo Herrell’s name and then you may sign her guestbook.
Webb Funeral Home has been entrusted with the arrangements for Mrs. Herrell and is honored to be serving the Herrell family.
Mrs. Herrell’s obituary has also been posted on Facebook for viewing
