BALD KNOB — Bettie Ann Swaims,

73, died peacefully while taking a nap on Sunday, February 5, at her home in Bald Knob, Ark.. She was born on August 24, 1949, in Splinterback, Calhoun County, Miss., a stitch of a spot that didn’t even have a stop sign, to Pheria Fair “Faye” Bobo and James Robert Elam. Some 70 years after her birth, Bettie learned through Ancestry DNA that her real father was Jacob Ray Clemons, of Splinterback, Miss. She was raised from a young age by her mother’s brother, James Edward Bobo, and his wife Vera, alongside her cousin, Annice.

For years, Bettie was a single mother of three who she raised by whatever means necessary. Both resourceful and optimistic, she made the best out of what little she had. She found the good in any situation or person (to a fault). She spent many years working at the Steak and Egg located at the corner of Capitol and Chester. Her own mother had worked in that same building when it was Dobb’s House, and her daughter worked there when it was Mr. Mason’s Barbecue. You might have seen her driving around the metro area in the late eighties in her Pepto-Bismol pink convertible Oldsmobile 98 with burgundy leather seats, top down, her signature white hair blowing in the wind. She was kind and never liked to say no to the people in her life whether they needed a place to live, a car loan that needed co-signing, or help with a bill that someone needed help paying. She was good to the core where it mattered most.

She is preceded in death by her first husband, Kenneth Neal Hawk; and her beloved second husband, Johnnie Lynn Swaims, Sr., whom she missed dearly.

She is survived by her daughter, Valorie Kay Elam of North Little Rock; Michael Scott Bingham-Hawk (Steve) of Overland Park, Kan., and Steven Gary Hawk (Karen) of Bald Knob. She was grandmother to (Valorie’s) Tommy Earl Barnes Elam, Valesha Shanta Moore (Roderick), and Johnathon Geroy Elam, (Michael’s) Yasmin Lula Elise, Danielle Dianne, and Solomon Jacob James Bingham-Hawk, and (Steven’s) Chenoah Lynn Hawk, Tayln Lee Wyatt, Kaysn Terry Wyatt, Lillian Louise Hawk, Layla Noelle Hawk; and was great-grandmother to thirteen.

A graveside service will be held on Thursday, February 9 at 2 p.m. at Barnes Cemetery in Batesville. In lieu of flowers, give $40.00 anonymously to a single mother.

Arrangements are entrusted to Powell Funeral Home, Bald Knob - Judsonia. www.powellfuneralhome.net