Betty Lee (Cook) Burgess, 91, of Blackstone and Uxbridge, formerly of Needham, passed away peacefully on Tuesday November 19th in the Lydia Taft House Rehab and Skilled Nursing Center in Uxbridge. She was the wife of the late Robert Wayne Burgess and was happily married to the love of her life for 61 years upon his passing.
Born in Boston in 1933, the daughter of the late Boyd and Kathleen (Lunergan) Cook. Betty was raised in Brookline and lived most of her happy life in Needham where she and Wayne brought up their four children. She later moved to Franklin where she resided at Forge Hill Senior Living, then moved to Lydia Taft in Uxbridge.
Betty was a proud graduate of Brookline High School, received numerous equestrian awards and also received an Associate’s Degree in Nursing from Simmons College in Boston.
Betty loved spending time at the beach, visiting Cape Cod often, taking drives to fun places around New England and keeping up with current events. Her greatest passion was spending time with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren at family gatherings. She always had a smile, big hugs, kind soothing words of advice, and home cooked meals for all of us and our friends growing up. She was most famous for her ginger crinkle cookies, strawberry shortcake and delicious brownies.
She was a wonderful Mother, Grandmother, Great-Grandmother and Daughter, her families’ biggest supporter who instilled in us the importance of family and loving each other.
She is survived by her children, Deborah Banks and her husband Mark of Millis, Patricia Simpson and her husband Russell of North Attleboro, Sue Rizzo and her partner Jay Rodrigues of Blackstone, and Bobby Burgess of Franklin.
She is grandmother to her ten grandchildren, Jen (Banks) Clarke and her husband Greg, Krissy (Banks) Fournier, Michael Sullivan, Katie (Sullivan) Thurber, Brendan Sullivan and his wife Kat, Sean Niles, Sara Niles, Nikki (Rizzo) Darnell and her husband Billy, Scott Rizzo and his fiancé Lainey Catalino, and Danielle (Burgess) Angelo and her husband Bob.
She is great-grandmother to her fourteen greats, Matthew, Kylee, Jason, Derick, Austin, Aiden, Ava, Ayla, Ashton, Ethan, Sarah Beth, Maddie, Riley and one on the way.
A celebration of Betty’s life will be held on Monday, December 9th in the Ginley Funeral Home of Franklin ginleyfuneralhomes.com 131 Main Street, Franklin, MA from 4-7 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to the Humane Society of the US at the HSUS Gift Donation Site. humanesociety.org