Betty A. Fleming

Betty Angers Fleming was born in New Iberia on January 25, 1926, to Robert and Anna Mae Angers. She grew up on Rosier Street near Mount Carmel Academy for girls, which she attended through high school. She subsequently attended and graduated from the Southwestern Louisiana Institute of Liberal and Technical Learning (SLI, now UL Lafayette), where she studied elementary education.

At SLI, the sweetness and charm she was known for left its mark on her classmates. A February 1945 edition of the campus newspaper dubbed her “Southwestern’s Favorite Queen,” noting that she was selected that year as the Blue Key Darling and the College of Engineering’s Sweetheart, and that she was the Camelia Queen of 1944. This was nothing new for the blue-eyed beauty, who had been receiving such accolades for years, ever since being named most beautiful child at the Teche District fair in New Iberia in 1930.

After graduating from SLI, Betty taught elementary school and married Robert Martin Fleming, originally of St. Martinville. Together, the dashing and convivial couple raised three children, Debbie, Patrick and Paul, living first in New Iberia, and then for many years on Main Street in Franklin.

For her children and eventually grandchildren and great-grandchildren, she was not only a queen, but the queen, and her reign was a long and benevolent one. As those who knew her can attest, Betty Fleming, our Mimi, was grace and dignity incarnate. She was kind and beautiful, and her life seemed bent on extending and cultivating these traits not just in herself but in her family and the world around her. That could mean nurturing a wilted flower at the edge of her always beautiful garden, or making sure a far flung grandchild knew they were loved with a touching note and a word of support from the blue.

Although she was Mimi to her family, she was also known as “Mission Control,” because that is what she was: the nerve center of her family, seemingly always omniscient about our lives and hopes, even frustrations. She was our compass and example for how to be in the world, and for how to treat others. Her bright and kind blue eyes, twinkling and keen well into her 90s, were always with us, and will always be with us.

Outside of the home, Betty was a lifelong supporter of the arts and humanities, especially in St. Mary, Iberia and Lafayette parishes. She was the first president of the Friends of the Humanities, a thriving philanthropic organization that supports initiatives within the College of Liberal Arts and the College of the Arts at UL Lafayette. She also played a large role in the restoration and beautification of a number of Acadiana landmarks, especially New Iberia’s Shadows-on-the-Têche and Franklin’s Grevemberg House Museum, where she was involved in organizing the annual Victorian Christmas celebration, among much else.

The Fleming family requests that gifts in memory of Betty, an avid gardener throughout her life, should be made to support the beautification of the grounds at UL Lafayette’s Center for Louisiana Studies at the J. Arthur Roy House. Please direct donations or inquiries to The UL Lafayette Foundation, Katherine Burlette, Associate Director of Development. Telephone: 337-482-0912. P.O. Box 44290, Lafayette, LA  70504-4290, or online at this link: https://give.louisiana.edu/give-now/restoretheroy.

Betty is survived by a large family who loved her dearly: children, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Patrick Fleming and Paul Fleming; grandchildren, Anna Fleming, Colleen Fleming, Ruth Caffery, Brennan Caffery, Zachary Fleming, Robert Fleming and Dr. Joshua Caffery; great-grandchildren, Isabelle Mahfouz, Rosalie Caffery, Moses Caffery, Tobias Kretchmer, and Gabriel Fleming Riley; daughter-in-law, Jody Fleming; and granddaughter-in-law, Claire Caffery. 

With her passing, Betty joins her beloved husband, Judge Robert Martin Fleming; her father, Robert Angers Sr.; her mother, Anna Mae Angers; her sister, Theresa Angers; her brothers. Allen and Robert Angers Jr.; and her daughter-in-law, Melissa Fleming.

A heartfelt appreciation is extended by the Fleming family to Betty’s caretakers, especially Ella Demouchet, Janella Alex, Paula White, Ashley Carter and Bonnie Joe, as well as Dr Gregory Riggs, Lauri Duke, Alyssa Barras, Julie Jacobs and Amy Green with Hospice of Acadiana.

A celebration of life will be held in honor of Betty in the spring.

View the obituary and guestbook online at www.mourning.com.

Martin & Castille-DOWNTOWN-330 St. Landry St., Lafayette, LA 70506, 337-234-2311.

(Pd.Adv.)