Betty Jacobs was born on January 2, 1934 in Tucson, AZ to Roy and Katherine Confer, and passed away on May 11, 2021, also in Tucson. She was the only daughter and the youngest of six children. Raised Catholic, she attended Sts. Peter & Paul from kindergarten to 9th grade and graduated from Tucson High School in 1951. She attended the U of A and was a member of Delta Gamma Sorority. At 19, she was named Miss Pima County in a beauty contest with her special talent being dancing, having studied ballet from an early age. She graduated in 1955 with a degree in Elementary Education. Following her mother’s advice to postpone her teaching career in favor of seeing the world, she accepted a job offer with American Airlines as an airline stewardess. Based initially in Dallas, she was later transferred to Honolulu, Hawaii where she flew on international routes to Japan. It was while flying that she met her future husband, Jake, a pilot in the U.S. Navy, and they were married in November 1956.

 

She settled into being a housewife living on naval bases in California and raising her 3 boys while her husband was away much of the time on cruises in the South Pacific and later flighting in the Vietnam war. After twenty years of marriage, she returned to Tucson and decided to get a divorce. She started work in the Eastside City Hall office as a clerk. In 1980, her oldest son was killed in a tragic motorcycle accident which left her devastated. The next year, she started traveling and she accompanied her two sons on a trip to Europe and the Middle East for the summer. She went to Washington D.C to help enact the Uniformed Services Former Spouse Protection Act. She appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America as a spokesperson for the cause and the law was passed by Congress in 1982. She liked Washington D.C. and spent a few years working in the U.S. Senate. Betty loved to travel and in retirement, she had time to further her travels in the U.S. and abroad as well as spend lots of time visiting her 2 sons in California, Tennessee and Florida.

 

Betty was a pretty, classic, and intelligent woman who enjoyed being close to her family. Very much her own person, she was always a gracious and loving mother to her three sons. Betty was preceded in death by her parents, her five brothers, and two of her children. She is survived by her son John Jacobs and her two grandchildren, Aaron Jacobs and Amber Jacobs. A Celebration of Betty’s life will be held this summer, time and place TBD. Betty's and her youngest son’s ashes will be sprinkled in the foothills of the Catalina mountains.