BETTY BRINK

FORT WORTH -- Betty Lee Bauer Brink died early Monday morning, Dec. 10, 2012, with her family at her side, in the same farmhouse where she had grown up. She suffered a stroke 13 weeks ago while traveling through Memphis, Tenn. Memorial service: A celebration of Betty's life will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday at Unity Church of Fort Worth, 5051 Trail Lake Drive. Memorials: In lieu of flowers, consideration of contributions to the Betty Brink Journalism Scholarship fund, in care of EECU, 1617 W. Seventh St., Fort Worth, Texas 76102. Born May 10, 1932, at Fort Worth's Harris Hospital, Betty was the daughter of Elbert Lee and Johnnye Morgan Bauer. She was a graduate of the Everman High School, class of 1949, and attended Lamar University in Beaumont. Betty Lee Bauer Brink died the way she'd lived her whole life, still in the midst of the fight for justice. She spent her adult years fighting all forms of injustice -- from marching for civil rights in deep East Texas, to protesting the Vietnam War, to battling the utility companies that were putting a nuclear power plant just south of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. There was no cause or injustice she would not or could not take on. During her later years, Betty devoted herself to journalism. Originally as a free-lance writer with articles in the Fort Worth Star Telegram, The Boston Globe and Ms. Magazine, she also wrote a blog for The Huffington Post. But her true investigative passion came when she began working with the Fort Worth Weekly where she had worked for the last 12 years. Betty was presented with at least 40 journalism awards from local, state and national journalism societies. But more important to her than the awards were the people and the causes that her stories helped. She wrote about corruption, injustice, discrimination and environmental problems wherever she found them -- in the schools, at city hall, outside power plants and cement plants and (in one of her longest running series) behind the bars of the Carswell federal prison hospital for women. Her coverage of the Fort Worth Independent School District and the women's prison issues at Carswell were a few of her proudest achievements. "It was as if I could see us all standing joyously holding hands, those who had gone before and those who had been born through me and would continue to be born, the line stretching from forever into forever. Because we are here now, means that we were there in the beginning. And that to me is awesome... and sacred. It is all that I need to know now of immortality." -- Betty Brink, Star Telegram, 1977. We will miss you, wife, Mom, Grandma Betty, sister, aunt and friend, more than you can ever know. Survivors: In addition to her husband of 57 years, Charles A. Brink Jr., Betty is survived by their children, Priscilla Reznikoff, Becky Yarbrough and husband, Tommy, Sarah Goodall-Rogers and husband, Ed, all of the Fort Worth area, Allen Brink and wife, Angie, of Copake, N.Y., and Deborah Maguire and husband, John, of Gainesville, Fla.; Betty and Charlie also played a large role in the raising of 16 grandchildren and 19 great-grandchildren, with one more on the way; her sister, Suzanne Mabe and nephews, Chris and Jeff Mabe; brother-in-law, Dr. Bruce C. Brink of Princeton, Ind.; and a nephew and three nieces, all of Indiana. Robertson Mueller Harper Funerals & Cremations 1500 Eighth Ave., 817-924-4233 To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of BETTY BRINK please visit our Sympathy Store.