Betsey Murray: creative, adventurous, giving

It is not difficult to capture who Betsey Murray is when you ask others: She is creative, energetic and adventurous. She is the definition of hospitality. She has a giving, servant heart. She is efficient and quick to ask, “What do we need to do?” and “What can I do to help?” She has spiritual depth and faith in God.

She herself will reveal who she is through her life experiences. She was born Betsey Kiel in Scarsdale, New York, the middle daughter between Charles and George. Because Mom was also named Betsey, three-year-old Charles nicknamed her Susie. Betsey’s father was a banker with the Federal Reserve System and her mother was a dedicated stay-at-home mom.

Betsey graduated from Scarsdale public schools and Western College (now Miami of Ohio) with a degree in religion. Andover Newton Theological Seminary accepted her application, but she chose not to go and instead moved to Boulder, Colorado for a short time until she moved to Muncie, Indiana, to help a friend care for her ailing parent.

It was in Muncie that she met Peter Murray with whom she shared a love of food, care and concern for the earth and the carefree hippie era. They wed in 1976 with everything they owned fitting into their 1972 kelly-green Datsun. They traveled to Ann Arbor, tented on Silver Lake for two weeks, and decided to stay because “We were having too much fun to leave.” With Peter as manager at Eden’s Restaurant and Betsey as cook they set down roots.

Besides a love of cooking Betsey has a heart for children. With the birth of her own children she established childcare in her home, which blessed over 125 families in eighteen years.                   

Betsey is most proud of her children. Skye, 27, is married to Ben Albers. Both recently graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena with masters of divinity degrees. They are seeking calls to chaplaincy positions. Tyler, 23, graduated from Michigan State University and is seeking entrance into law school. Brett, 21, is a junior at U-M studying kinesiology.

Since 1999 Betsey has managed and cooked for the Ann Arbor Men’s Club and she has developed, Ducks in a Row, an organizing business to help people downsize and to find a place for everything.

The tragic death of Peter in July 2004, was life changing. “When children lose a parent they lose both parents. I can no longer be just the mother, but must give the hard talks and be the bottom line. I must take on the role of both parents. Everything changes and I relate differently to everyone as a single person.” She says, “I trust God knows what he’s doing.” She knows what is required of her through her favorite verse, Micah 6:8: “What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Who Betsey Murray is and what she does is connected with a strong link to God and others. She is still in contact with four friends from elementary school and regularly contacts college roommates. Betsey cares for her 94-year-old mother, Betsey Kiel.

We know Betsey from her service at Westminster since she joined in 1988, whether it be singing in Chancel Choir, working in the kitchen, or teaching in the three-year-olds Sunday school class. She is the coordinator for weddings and funerals, a deacon, a very active member of the Housing Task Force, the Fiftieth Anniversary Committee and Women’s Ministry.

What are Betsey’s future plans? “I’m looking forward to celebrating Westminster’s fiftieth anniversary and the seventy-fifth as well.” What would Betsey do if she were free to do anything? “I want to help people,” she says. We can certainly see that our perceptions of Betsey and the witness of her life are in harmony.

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