Betty Street

Mrs. Betty Atkinson Street, age 91, of Mount Airy, passed away Wednesday, June 5, 2019 (her birthday), at her home in Mount Airy, NC.  Mrs. Street was born in Christiansburg, VA on June 5, 1928, and was the eldest child of John Med Atkinson and Lonnie Magretta DeHart Atkinson.  Surviving is a son, Roddy K. Street, Jr. and wife Nan; and grandsons, James Joshua Street, and Paul I. Street.  In addition to her parents, Mrs. Street was preceded in death by her husband, Roddy Kenneth Street, who died in 1984 at age 58; and by her second son, Mark Stephen Street; who died in 1990 at age 36, and by her two younger brothers, Bill Atkinson and Don Atkinson.  Funeral services will be held at 11:00 AM on Saturday, June 8, 2019, and will be conducted by her pastor, Rev. Griff Gatewood, at the First Presbyterian Church of Mount Airy, NC. The family will receive friends at the church one hour prior to the service. Burial will follow at West End Cemetery in Wytheville, VA , with a graveside service conducted there by Pastor Gatewood  at 2:00 pm. Her surviving son, Roddy Kenneth Street, Jr., wishes to add these comments to this online version of her obituary: "My mom, Betty Street, was preparing for her trip to Heaven for a great many years, probably at least 81 years (assuming she started paying attention to church sermons at around age 10), and Pastor Griff Gatewood is the last of a great many pastors that she became acquainted with during her lifetime... and from whom she sought Bible instruction during her long life on planet Earth. She was a lifelong church-goer until about 2 years ago, when physical incapacity prevented her from continuing to attend the services of Pastor Gatewood at the First Presbyterian Church of Mount Airy.

"Our family first began attending this same church in the summer of 1964, when we first moved from Greenville, SC to Mount Airy, NC. My father was for many years a deacon of this same church, before his early death at age 58. Mom often worked with the Yokefellows mission of her church, for a great many years, back when she was healthier and stronger; she was a faithful and regular attending member of this same church from 1964 until about 2 years ago, when physical incapacity made it too difficult for her to go outside her house any more.  "I started reading a lot of Christian books and on-screen Christian ebooks with her at least 5 or 6 years ago, using a little TV-box computer to display the material on her widescreen TV in our den. We especially liked to read a lot of Christian books together that were about Heaven, ones that were written by various pastors, including the familiar names of Billy Graham & Robert Jeffress, but our favorites books to read together in the den were those written on the subject of Heaven (and life in the Millenial Kingdom & life on the New Earth), that were written by Pastor David Jeremiah & by Pastor Randy Alcorn. We continued this daily reading habit every evening for the past 4 or 5 years, including the last 2 years, during which she could no longer attend the Sunday worship services at FPC. I also read aloud a daily-devotions page from our subscription to Rev. David Jeremiah's monthly magazine called "Turning Points." We also spent a great many hours listening to my Bill Pearce NIV Bible recordings, which were actually made originally as tape-cassettes that I bought on Guam starting in 1980... but I personally turned them all into MP3 files for my MP3 players, because I loved his Bible-reading style so much. I've always found it very restful and peace-inducing to listen to Bill Pearce's mostly-tranquil narration style, and I think my mom did too. My family and I stayed home from church every Sunday during the past 2 years, so we could be with my mom on Sundays, but she and I sat together in our den and watched at least 3 or 4 TV-broadcast sermons produced weekly by 1) Pastor David Jeremiah, 2) Pastor Charles Stanley, 3) Pastor Adrian Rogers, and 4) Pastor Robert Jeffress.  "So Mom has been preparing for her trip to Heaven for quite a long time, and Pastor Gatewood of FPC is only the latest of a great many pastors with whom she became acquainted over many decades of life, and from whom she sought instruction about the Bible and the best way to get to Heaven.  "I was suprised to learn from her, maybe just 2 and 1/2 or 3 years ago, that when she was growing up as a child in Christiansburg, VA, her family was first attending a little non-denominational church there which was called the "Christiansburg Christian Church," and its pastor had no one in his little church to play the piano for the Sunday church services... so he recruited my mom, when she was only about 14 years old, to play the piano for his weekly Sunday church service. She did that for a year or two, and then when her family switched to another little church called the "Christiansburg Baptist Church," its pastor had my mom continue playing the piano for the weekly Sunday services at his church likewise! She was doing that in her teenage years. Later, when she graduated from high school and got a job as a secretary in Christiansburg, she wanted to have a rented room for herself outside her parents' home... and she started renting a room in the home of the local Methodist minister. He persuaded her to join his Methodist church for a few years, even though all the rest of her family was continuing to attend a Christiansburg Baptist church. When my father, who had grown up Presbyterian in Wytheville, VA got out of the US Navy, he started studies at V.P.I. (Virginia Polytechnic Institute) in Blacksburg, VA, working his way toward a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration. And while studying at that institution, Dad met Mom in Christiansburg and started dating her. So when they got married, Mom switched churches once again, going from Methodist to Presbyterian, while her 2 brothers and parents continued to be Baptists in Christiansburg, VA.  "It seems appropriate to us now that my mom started her Earth-birthday in the morning of June 5, 2019, and before the day ended, she had arrived in Heaven to meet God... where she is now in the much better world of the Afterlife, a world without so much distress and difficulty as that of the Present Earth. It is a Heavenly World of endless Life with God. There she is already celebrating her Rebirth Day and the inception of an Eternal Life in the Endless Kingdom of Almighty God's Heaven.  "Even today, on June 7, 2019.  "And on Saturday, June 8, 2019, when her body and casket are lowered into her grave-site there in Wytheville, Virginia... to await the great Resurrection Day of our already-resurrected Lord and Savior Jesus Christ... her family members will be comforted in the realization that Betty Street's spirit is already in Heaven with God. And in the knowledge that she will someday be given a new Glorified Resurrection Body like that of Jesus Christ Himself... for an Eternal Life in the Millennial Kingdom of Christ's Rule over a renovated planet Earth. In the knowledge also that she will thereafter live endlessly in the resurrected paradise of the New Earth.  "Mom's favorite hobby was gardening. And it was perhaps only about 4 years ago when she informed me  that she was very much looking forward to a life of eternal gardening and work on the New Earth... in the Resurrected Paradise (or Resurrected Eden) of the New Earth. That idea was an extremely appealing prospect for my mom. She very much enjoyed her hobby of gardening even on the "Old Earth" of the present time.  "Rest In Peace, Mom. May Almighty God bless you with endless happiness in Heaven and on the New Earth."