ELIZABETH JONES CONOVER Elizabeth Jones Conover, 81, recently of Lake Toxaway, North Carolina, left this life on October 1, 2013, with her two sons and her sister at her bedside. Born in Troy, Alabama, the elder child of Col. Charles Pollard and Frances Armstrong Jones of Auburn, Bettie was preceded in death by her husband, Col. Nelson Perry Conover, a native of Mobile. The proud daughter, wife, and mother of soldiers, she followed the paths that the Army assigned, first to her father and then her husband, across the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and all around the United States, from North Carolina to Ohio to Massachusetts, from Virginia and Kansas to Pennsylvania and Georgia, from Washington to Missouri to Mississippi, before retiring in Louisiana. She was a military daughter at Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941; she was a military wife and mother in Germany during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962. She completed a master's degree in history while her husband served two tours of combat in Vietnam; they moved out of New Orleans to be closer to their grandchildren in Maryland a month to the day before Hurricane Katrina arrived. As her family moved from place to place, she entered into the life of each community, volunteering her time and energy to a variety of worthy causes; her thoughtfulness and generosity earned admiration and made lasting acquaintances wherever she lived. In the Crescent City, she was an active member of the Orleans Club and Le Petit Salon. Bettie was a dedicated crossword puzzler, an avid reader, and an accomplished knitter, whose custom-made Christmas stockings grace the Yuletide mantels both of her kin and of many friends (and their children and grandchildren too). She battled cancer to a standstill more than twenty-five years ago, and truly savored the gift of the following decades; when the disease recurred, she waged her long last campaign against it with customary courage and grace. She is survived by her sister, Kirk Jones Smith of Lake Toxaway, her sons Charles Nelson Conover and his wife Donna of Chesapeake, Virginia, and Kirk Conover and his wife Rebecca of Columbia, Maryland, and her granddaughters Elizabeth May Conover and Anna Kirk Conover, also of Columbia. A small private service of prayer and remembrance was held at her home, to be followed by an interment at Arlington National Cemetery beside her beloved husband. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the Wounded Warrior Project.She is survived by her sister, Kirk Jones Smith of Lake Toxaway, her sons Charles Nelson Conover and his wife Donna of Chesapeake, Virginia, and Kirk Conover and his wife Rebecca of Columbia, Maryland, and her granddaughters Elizabeth May Conover and Anna Kirk Conover, also of Columbia. A small private service of prayer and remembrance was held at her home, to be followed by an interment at Arlington National Cemetery beside her beloved husband. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the Wounded Warrior Project.

Published in The Washington Post on Oct. 11, 2013