Betty A. Poteat

Betty A. Poteat, of Spartanburg, passed away peacefully in her home on October 12, 2024, following a year-long illness. She was 90 years old. 

Betty was a remarkable woman. Her parents, Mary and Furman Poteat, worked in the mills of Whitney and Gaffney, and Betty inherited the athletic ability of her uncle, P.D. Eubanks, who played professional baseball. When Betty was only 14, she played softball professionally in the All-American Girl’s League in Chicago and is memorialized in the South Carolina Fast Pitch Hall of Fame. She is remembered for being an outstanding pitcher who could compete on the men’s level, and as an inspirational sportswoman. 

Betty was attracted to medicine as a career. While studying nursing at Spartanburg General Hospital, she became curious about nursing anesthesia, and transferred to Bowman Gray at Wake Forest University, graduating as a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist in 1959. She was promptly hired as a staff nurse anesthetist by Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte, eventually rising to become Director of Nursing Anesthesia, where she coordinated the staffs of twelve surgical amphitheaters. 

During these years she developed a passion for golf – her picture is in the Spartanburg County Hall of Fame for Golf – and for fishing, a passion shared by her parents and her brother, Robert. Bob and Betty built their parents a fishing getaway on the intercoastal waterway in North Carolina, and it became a magical place for the entire family to gather. When she retired, Betty returned to Spartanburg and cared for her parents and, eventually, for her brother. She was a devoted member of First Baptist Church-Spartanburg, where she sustained life-long friendships. She will be dearly missed by everyone who knew her. 

Betty is survived by her cousins, Larry Poteat, Jim Harlow, Shannon Eubanks, and Ann LeCroy Phillips. 

A visitation will be held 12:00-12:45 p.m. Saturday, October 19, 2024, at Floyd’s Greenlawn Chapel, 2075 East Main Street, Spartanburg, SC 29307. Her funeral service will follow at 1:00 p.m., in the Chapel, conducted by the Rev. Sal Barone and Mr. Al Clark. Nightingale Tribute and Final Call to Duty will be performed by the Nurses Honor Guard of South Carolina. The burial will be in Sunset Memorial Park, Cannons Campground Road, Spartanburg, SC 29307. 

Floyd’s Greenlawn Chapel