08/19/2026
Obituary - Betty Jean Rowland Belcher
Betty Jean Rowland Belcher left this world on August 15, 2026, at the age of 96. She was born in a farmhouse near Sparks, Georgia, a week before the stock market crash of 1929 that ushered in the Great Depression. She was the fourth of eight children born to Jack and Kathleen Martin Rowland, and grew up on the family’s farm before electric lines stretched to rural America. She was the first of her siblings to graduate from high school.
Betty married John David Belcher, Jr., in 1948 in Quitman while he was in the Navy, waited for him to be stationed stateside, then took the first train ride of her young life from Quitman to Rhode Island to start a marriage that lasted nearly 70 years. During John’s time in the Navy, their first child was born in Charleston and their second in San Diego. Once John left the Navy and began working in information technology, their third child was born in Jacksonville and their fourth in Louisville. John’s work during his time in the Navy and afterward required several moves, and at one time Betty counted over 20 relocations during their married life. Each house quickly became a home, though, because her loving actions made it a home: new handmade curtains, furniture in place, pictures on the wall, home-cooked meals, routines established, all things her children took as their duty and perhaps only now appreciate in hindsight.
In the third decade of their marriage, John felt a call to the ministry. With two children out of the house by then, John and Betty and their two younger children moved to Graceville, Florida, where both attended the Baptist Bible Institute. John received his degree in the ministry, while Betty shifted her focus to nursing training in Chipley, Florida. She earned her license as an LPN, fulfilling a lifelong dream.
John was called to serve as minister of Morrison Baptist Church and then Morven Baptist Church in Brooks County. Betty accepted a job with Dr. Walter Romine in Quitman as his office nurse, where she served until his retirement in the ‘90s. She later worked in two other Quitman doctors’ offices before her own retirement.
Betty and John fulfilled another dream they shared when they moved to the north Georgia mountains, but after several years felt too strong a pull back home to South Georgia, where they returned and lived until John’s death in 2017. Betty was then persuaded by her children to sell her last precious home in Quitman and move to independent living in Tallahassee. She spent her last years in Tallahassee.
Betty learned about Jesus at a young age from cousins, classmates, and teachers, eventually accepting Him as her savior when she was a young married mother, with baptism following at Highlands Baptist Church in Jacksonville in the 1950’s. Because her family knows of her faith, there is relief and joy in knowing she went immediately from this life into God’s open arms.
Betty was preceded in death by her mother and father; her husband John; her brothers Earl, Cleve, Jack, Gene and Virgil Rowland; and her sisters Dorothy Rowland Tucker and Robbie Nelle Rowland Sturgis.
She is survived by daughter Kay Belcher Flynn and Kay’s husband Bob; son J. David Belcher, Jr. and his wife Tammy; son William Mark Belcher and his wife Debbie; and son Keith Allan Belcher and his wife Leslie. Grandchildren Will, Rob, David, Tasha, Robert, Stephen, John, Adam, Savannah, Justin and Michelle also survive her, as well as great-grandchildren Amberly, Logan, Audrey, Olivia, Dimitri, Danielle, Nastassja, Ripley, Eleanor, Caroline, Molly, Tess, Caleb, Liberty, William, Ava Claire, Daniel and great-granddaughter Catalina. Numerous nieces and nephews on both the Rowland and Belcher sides survive her as well.
Funeral services will be held at Maxwell-Purvis Funeral Home in Quitman at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 20, 2026 with Rev. Bill Blanchard officiating. Interment will follow at Campground Cemetery near Morven. The family will be receiving friends one hour prior to the service at the funeral home.
Those who wish to make a donation in Betty’s memory in lieu of flowers may do so with the building fund at Northway Community Church in Valdosta. Condolences may be expressed to the family online at www.purvisfh.com. Maxwell - Purvis Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
