Funeral services for Betty Ruth Keller Rackley will be at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, March 10, 2025 at the Eastman Baptist Church.  Interment will follow immediately in Eastman cemetery.  Services are under the direction of Flanagan-Watts Funeral Home of Marietta.  Visitation is planned for the family and friends from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, March 9, 2025 at the Funeral Home.

Betty was born Nov. 18, 1936 at Eastman, the second child to Rhul W. and Mable Beatrice Turner Keller.  She departed this life Tuesday, March 4, 2025.

At the age of five she moved, with her family, to Bakersfield, California where she began her schooling at Beardsley School in Oildale.  When her dad was called into the U.S. Navy, at the time of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the family returned to Love County where she entered the Marietta School.  At the end of the war, when her dad returned, the family moved back to their farm in the Eastman community.  She then enrolled in the Meadowbrook School.

On Oct. 21, 1953 she and Buford Rackley were married in the home of Rev. W.P. Rowland of Marietta.  They immediately left for Litchfield Park, Arizona where they were to make their home due to Buford's employment there.

For the next thirty-six years they were to live in all states of the Southwest with his tenure with the El Paso Natural Gas Company.  In all of these states, they lived in some of the most remote areas, as the gas company was not known for having many refineries/transmission plants near a town or city.  Betty took this opportunity to get to know and understand people better and to raise her children to be good citizens.  These were good times, and the children learned, to achieve, sometimes you had to sacrifice.  It was while living in one of these out-of-the-way places, she began a career of working for the school system as a substitute teacher, a career which would last for 20+ years.  They were sent to live on the Navajo Reservation near Gallup, New Mexico where she fell in love with the culture and hoped to somehow become an influence in their lives.  She always said that was an experience she would not have taken anything for.

When Buford retired in 1989, they returned to Eastman where they had prepared their retirement home.  She was happy to once again be in the community her family had lived in since before statehood.  She also continued her role as a substitute teacher in the Turner School system where she affectionately was known as "Miss Betty".  Her love for the children was evident as some of the children began calling her "grandma".  She and Buford became known as the "grandparents of Turner School".

At the age of 13 she gave her heart to the Lord, being among the first converts of the newly organized Eastman Baptist Church.  She was baptized into the Church and remained true to her Lord even when there were times of living in remote areas where it was not always convenient to attend church.  Her love to feel close to God was satisfied through the good Southern Gospel music she listened to daily.  She always said, "That's what makes Southern Gospel Music so great, there's always a message in each song".  She and Buford enjoyed going, and even taking their children, to concerts when they were young during the time they lived in New Mexico and West Texas.  In later years they began to take cruises that were offered by many of their favorite gospel groups.  These cruises took them to Alaska, Hawaii, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Grand Caymen and many times to Mexico.  She enjoyed her Church and her Women's II Sunday School Class so very much and was always one who could be counted on when there was a need for preparing food or for doing something that was needed.  She was a member of Eastman Baptist Church for 70 years.

She was always interested in her family history, something she pursued over many years.  She and Buford had taken many genealogy trips and walked through lots of cemeteries in several states.  She had visited twice the area in Pennsylvania where her German immigrant ancestors had lived.  She spent many hours on this very rewarding hobby and had traced Buford's family history as well.  She began doing genealogy in 1958.

Betty was preceded in death by her husband, Buford Gerald Rackley, her infant son, Terry Brent; her parents, Rhul and Mable Turner Keller, sister, Quetha Gonzales and husband Ernie; and brothers, Richard Wesley (Dick) Keller, Rhul Jr. Keller, Randall Keller and wife Debra.  She is survived by her sons and daughter-in-law, Mark Rackley and wife Sherry of Eastman and Layne Rackley and husband Jeffrey Dunlap of San Diego, California; her daughter, Sonya Choate and husband John of Eastman; grandchildren, Misti Langston and husband Cody of Eastman, Shane Rackley and wife Natalya of Snyder, Texas, Kevin Rackley and wife Blanca of Midland, Texas, Kye Henington and wife Heather of Burneyville, Canon and Ellie Church of Chesterfield, Missouri, Catherine Choate of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Connor Choate and wife Grace of Marietta, and Grace Ann Choate of Tulsa, Oklahoma; great-grandchildren, Zane Cooper, Colten Empey, Tana Rackley, Jarek Henington, Bryce Rackley, Hadley Langston, Nikolai Rackley, Margaux Choate, Charli Choate, Thomas Choate, Joseph Choate, Ruth Choate, and Porter Choate; one brother, Jimmy Keller and wife Jean of Sacramento, California; and sister-in-law, Geneva Keller of Blythe, Arkansas.

Active pallbearers will be grandsons Kye Henington, Cody Langston, Shane Rackley, Kevin Rackley, Zane Cooper, Colten Empey and Jarek Henington.

Honorary pallbearers will be John Choate, Jeffrey Dunlap, Ronny Langston, Jerry Henington, Cari Clark, Sherry Miller Taylor, and Shawna Stinson.