Memorial Service: 11:00 a.m., Friday, October 20, 2017
Location: Weymouth Funeral Home Chapel
Reception: Following the Service
Location: Weymouth Funeral Home
Betsy Ross Edison passed away at home on October 9, 2017. She was 73. Betsy was born in Elizabeth Buxton Hospital in Hampton, Virginia in 1944. She grew up in Hilton Village in Newport News by the James River, where she graduated from Warwick High School as part of the Class of 1962. Following her graduation from Warwick High, Betsy pursued an extensive academic career. After attending the University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University, Betsy received a Bachelor’s of Arts in English Literature from the University of California, Berkley, where she was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society. Betsy then received a Masters of Arts degree in Video Production and Film Studies from The American University in Washington, D.C. In 1997 Betsy received a Ph.D. in Higher Education and the Psychology of Learning from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Betsy’s thesis addressed the correlation of emotional well-being and high academic achievement.
Betsy’s career was as varied as her educational background. She was a photojournalist and freelance reporter in the late 1960’s through the 1970’s, working for AP, UPI, the San Francisco Bay Guardian and other news outlets. Her photographs covering the end of the Watergate scandal were published in News Week, The New York Times, the New York Post, the New York Daily News, and the Washington Post. She was also a photographer and on-camera interviewer for TVTV, an independent San Francisco based video production company, in the TVTV produced documentary on the aftermath of Watergate. The documentary was produced for WNET and was aired nationally on PBS stations.
In the 1980’s Betsy worked for the World Bank in Washington, DC as Operations Staff for ESMAP, the Energy Sector Management Assistance Program for sub-Saharan Africa. She traveled “on mission” to Abidjan, Cote d’Ivor and Paris, France. While at the World Bank, Betsy was a photographer for the Bank’s in-house publication, Bank’s World, where she wrote profiles and contributed photography of noteworthy staff and visitors.
While pursuing her M.A. in film and video production, Betsy was an intern at the U.S. Information Agency in Washington DC. Her focus at USAID was developing interactive broadcasts on energy sector development and education for US Embassies in sub-Saharan Africa.
While pursuing her doctorate at William & Mary, Betsy worked as an historical interpreter for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, in the Book Bindery and the Print Shop. She also worked as a school groups guide for Colonial Williamsburg and the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.
Following graduation and the successful defense of her dissertation on correlations between high achievement and emotional intelligence and well-being, Betsy worked for the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities on Jamestown Island.
Betsy is also the author of two books: Pinkney’s General, a fictional story based on her paternal great grandfather’s service in the Army of Northern Virginia; and Seven Temples on Malta, which addresses the possible use of prehistoric Maltese temples, illustrated with her own photographs.
Betsy is survived by her son, Terraplane Marquez; daughter-in-law, Poppy Marquez; and granddaughter, Ingrid Marquez of Richmond, Virginia; and her sister, Anne Edison of Newport News.
A Memorial Service will be held at 11:00 a.m., Friday, October 20, 2017 at Weymouth Funeral Home, with a Reception to follow at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to the Corolla Wild Horse Fund, P.O. Box 361, Corolla, 27927. Arrangements by Weymouth Funeral Home.