Elizabeth "Betty" Parkin Wassell Watts, 100, a woman who was a pioneer in her own right, died June 16, 2019, of natural causes at Hospice House in Vero Beach, FL.
Betty was born in Wilmette, IL, on Nov. 24, 1918, the third of Frank Lloyd and Georgene Parkin Wassell's six children.  Because her father was a salesman and sales trainer who opened offices for national companies, the family lived in several cities, including Dallas, TX, Pittsburgh, PA,
Reading, PA, Rye, NY, and Wilton, CT, before moving to Westport, CT. Throughout high school, Betty was on her schools' varsity swim teams, and she served as captain her senior year at Rye High School, from which she graduated. After completing courses at National Park College, an all-women's college in Forest Glen, MD, she worked at the first office of the Wassell Organization Company in New York City. She helped open the company's manufacturing site in Wilton, CT, before it was relocated to Westport, CT. Freedom, family, and faith in God were Betty's highest values. On October 26, 1940, she married Raymond Willard Watts, Sr. at Christ & Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Westport, CT. She was a loving mother to her six children and raised most of them in Westport, CT. The youngest two she raised as a single parent in Pompano Beach, FL. She was strong in her faith, having experienced the deaths of three of her four brothers, all U.S. Air Force pilots who were killed within 15 months of each other during WWII. Betty was a person ahead of her time. She practiced the "anti-chemicals in the home environment and lifestyle" precepts of author Rachel Carson, as described in the book Silent Spring. She also lived by the nutrition practices of 1970s nutritional scientist and author Adelle Davis before "green and healthy living" became popular many years later. She had an entrepreneurial spirit and forward-thinking mindset. As a real estate broker, Betty sold properties on her own and with her husband Raymond through their business, Watts Realty. Ray was the son of one of Westport's first realtors, Sally (Watts) Hunter, who was a founding member of the Connecticut Board of Realtors. With her husband Ray, Betty redeveloped land along Nash's Pond. They relocated Georgian Colonial homes to new property sites, renovating and preserving these valuable historic residences. She and her husband started several businesses based on their inventions.

One business involved designing pre-fabricated wood shingle roofing systems, installing them and spraying them with a particular wood preservative. Betty was also the trusted treasurer of Westport's largest private employer, Wassell Organization Corporation, which manufactured office control systems and had been founded by her father, Frank Lloyd Wassell. Betty walked to the beat of her own drummer, taking furniture-making, wood-working, stained-glass, auto mechanics and income tax preparation classes in the 1960s before it was common for women to take these courses. She believed in being a lifelong learner. Among her friends, Betty she was given the nickname "legs," for her model-quality
legs. She didn't believe in conforming to society's expectations of what a person should be or do at any given age; her personal motto was "what you can perceive, you can achieve," in line with the values of the Unity Church and forward-thinkers such as Edgar Casey, Og Mandino, and Dale Carnegie. She believed in being independent, and she valued freedom very highly. After the death of her husband in 1971, Betty relocated to Pompano Beach, FL where she raised her two youngest children as a single parent. She returned to Westport in 1978 and joined the Julia Bradley real estate agency, finally retiring to Vero Beach, FL in 1981.  Betty was a generous person in many ways, from being a "multiple-gallon" blood
donor at the Blood Banks in every town she lived in to stopping to help drivers stranded along the road. Her hobbies included traveling, antiquing, renovating antique furniture, deep-sea sport fishing, being a great Scrabble champion, and reading. She is predeceased by her husband, Raymond Willard Watts (1971); her mother,

Georgene Parkin Wassell (1970); her father, Frank Lloyd Wassell, (1972); her mother-in-law Sally (Watts) Hunter (1966); her step-father-in-law, Dr. Art Hunter, Sr.(1963); and her brothers, Harry Wassell (1942), Frank Lloyd "Bud" Wassell (1941), Pete Wassell (1943) and George Wassell (2010). Betty is survived by her six children: Raymond (Becky) Watts of Charlotte, NC; Sandy (John) Hintz of San Diego; Jeff Watts of Forrest, VA; Tom (Pam) Watts of East Greenwich, RI; Chris (Cyndie) Watts of Atlantic Beach, FL; and Diane (Todd) Wilson Saunier of Fort Pierce, FL; 14 grandchildren; 18 great-grandchildren; her sister, Patricia Shoemaker MacAleenan of Estes Park, CO.; sister-in-laws Elizabeth Wassell of
Kennebunkport, ME, and Marge Hunter of Palm Beach Gardens, FL; brother-in-law, Art Hunter of Westport, CT; niece Patricia (Wassell) Eaton of Westport, CT; and nephew Pete (Wassell) Burton of Middlebury, VT. No funeral service is planned. Contributions in Betty's memory may be made to these organizations, which she personally supported: the Indian River County Library, the Humane Society of Indian River County, Unity Church of Vero Beach and Trinity Episcopal Church of Vero Beach.