Obituary: Betty Lou Bowman O’Shea
LEWISTON - Betty Lou Bowman O’Shea, former resident of Fountain Hills, passed away peacefully on Friday November 20, 2020 at her ...
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Betty Lou Bowman O’Shea
LEWISTON – Betty Lou Bowman O’Shea, former resident of Fountain Hills, passed away peacefully on Friday November 20, 2020 at her current residence in Lewiston, Maine. Betty was born November 14, 1931 to Walter V. Tolbert and Texie (Brumbeloe) Tolbert in La Mesa, Texas.
Betty was the youngest of nine children raised in Texas during the Great Depression. Betty’s father, a self-taught country veterinarian and amateur musician, would stage small concerts on the town’s band stand that featured Betty as a singer. At the age of 12, as a way to earn money for the family, Betty left home to go on a USO tour performing with a band that entertained soldiers at different military bases through out the southern Untied States. Following the war, she continued to tour as a vocalist through the south with a band made up of African American musicians, who she later credited as having “raised me”.