Betty Lou McMahan Lucas was born on January 1, 1939, in Wisner, Louisiana and crossed into heaven in Ruston, Louisiana on September 18, 2021 following a brief illness. The service will be held at 11:00 a.m. at Temple Baptist Church in Ruston, LA on Wednesday, September 22, 2021 with a graveside service at South Central Cemetery in Wisner, LA around 2:30 P.M. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband John Zeffrey Lucas, Jr.  She was also preceded in death by her parents, Lawrence and Thelma McMahan, her sisters, Mary Britt and Jean Ortego, and her brother, Lawrence “Sonny” McMahan. She is survived by her children Harriet (Eddy) Kicker of Greenville, SC, John Zeffrey Lucas, III (Mindy) of Cypress, TX, Eric Lucas (Rachael) of Loreauville, LA, and Jason Lucas (Teresa) of Cypress, TX. She had fourteen grandchildren: Rachel Kicker (Rusty) Prescott, Adam Lucas (Lindsay) Kicker, Madeline Lucas (Tim) Buchanan, Adam Laviolette, Caleb (Mary) Laviolette, Merrick Lucas, Maggie Lucas, Ashley Lucas, fiancé Trey Bechnel, Lindsey Lucas(Josh) Sorvillo, Zeffrey Lucas, Andrew Lucas, Emily Lucas, Tristan Lucas, and Liam Lucas. She is also survived by her sisters, Sue Goode of Sicily Island, LA and Sonja Smith of Jonesboro, LA as well as many nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Temple Baptist Church Mission Fund, 1515 S. Service Road West, Ruston, LA 71270 or South Central Baptist Church Cemetery Fund, P.O. Box 254, Wisner, LA 71378.

Betty Lou grew up on a dairy farm in Wisner. She developed a tremendous work ethic through her family commitment of milking the cows every morning before going to class at Gilbert High School.  She spoke, not so fondly, of having the smell of Clorox she could never seem to get rid of that lingered with her atschool every day. She was never afraid of hard work, and she always did it with a smile.  It would come to no one’s surprise she was excited to go to college right after graduating from high school. Influenced by her educators at Gilbert, she went to Northwestern State University to become an elementary school teacher.  During her college days, she began dating a Louisiana Tech student named John.  God blessed this courtship with the most amazing love shared for each other.  The love and commitment they had for one another was an incredible inspiration and example of how God intended marriage to be. Betty was John’s Boo and together they raised their children by showing them what love was.  She was extremely proud of her children, grandchildren, and especially her great grandchildren, Emma, John, and Lucas Prescott (“the Triplets”) and Aubrey Buchanan.

John and Betty’s journey took them to Oklahoma City, Monroe, Lafayette, and finally to Ruston. They had a wonderful life together that was a perfect partnership.  Together, in their faith in God, they instilled in their children that God’s love was the perfect love. Married for over 46 years, Daddy passed away in 2006.

Mama loved to cook and through that talent was able to touch many lives through food. We grew up with family meals around the table and almost every meal we had biscuits. Our family looked so forward to coming home to a Mama cooked meal that we knew would include biscuits.  She had a library of cookbooks and loved to share recipes and try new ones.  In addition to family meals, cards and games were a big part of her life. Whether it was game night at Temple, Wahoo and Phase Ten with the kids, or playing Bridge, she was always ready to play.

Mama also loved to teach.  After starting her teaching career in Oklahoma, she taught for almost 20 years impacting hundreds of fourth grade students. She had a knack for recognizing former students over the years and they obviously recognized her. One day while in a store, a former studentfrom twenty years ago recognized and exclaimed “Mrs. Lucas, you haven’t changed a bit in twenty years”.  She felt good about herself and came home and told my dad the story.  He shook his head and said, “it must be terrible to think you looked 50 when you were 30”. Some of her fondest teaching memories were at Hilcrest Elementary and the relationships she had with her fellow teachers and administrators.

Mama was a member of Temple Baptist Church and loved to serve wherever they needed her. She loved her church and her church loved her back.  It is hard to express our gratitude for her church family that was there for her after Daddy died.She developed so many special friendships over the years. In addition to being a great wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, she was a great friend.  We rejoice that her friends that have gone on before her were there when she got to meet Jesus.

While she hid it well, Mama had chronic pain in her legs and feet for many, many years. She loved to work in her yard.  Although it probably contributed to her pain, she was able to get some relief through yard work. She could be seen pushing her wheelbarrow through the yard probably long after she physically should have been.  She would start going out early in the morning to avoid the neighbors fussing at her for working so hard. We are extremely grateful for those neighbors that always kept an eye out for her.  Buddy and Betty Smith are true friends andwe will be forever grateful. Mama’s cousin, Mallory Banister, was like a beloved brother to herand we know he will miss her greatly.

For those that were not aware, she had suffered a stroke on June 15th and had been in rehab for almost 90 days. She had made tremendous improvement and the plan was for her to move to Greenville, SC to live in an assisted living community close to Harriet. We are grateful for the love from her therapists and care givers from Alpine that took great care of her. Before the move to Greenville, she wanted to spend a little time at home. Harriet brought her home last Thursday. We were aware of her extraordinarily large aneurism but, like her, lived life day to day trying not to focus on what might happen.  Her aneurism apparently ruptured while she was in her chair napping. God worked everything out for good as she got to finally go to her earthly home from rehab, spent some time reminiscing in and amongst her memories. For the last several years, she had been in almost constant pain.  NO MORE. Life is so precious and we are comforted with the truth of everlasting life.

We have been overwhelmed by the love, prayers, and support from everyone that knew her.  She was a selfless, caring, and loving soul whose gift was to serve others.