Betty Blaisdell is the Woman's Club of Fredericksburg's Woman of the Year, but her commitment to helping others spans decades. PETER CIHELKA/THE FREE LANCE-STAR Visit the Photo Place

Honor goes to dynamo who just couldn't retire

Betty Blaisdell, the Woman's Club of Fredericksburg Woman of the Year, is an inexhaustible volunteer--and a force of nature

By LAURA MOYER

Date published: 4/20/2009

Long before Betty Blaisdell helped revolutionize English teaching in Fairfax County schools

And long before she started a post-retirement career of volunteering in the Fredericksburg area

And long before she was named Woman of the Year for 2008-'09 by the Woman's Club of Fredericksburg last week

She was Betty Jefferson, a bright Fredericksburg teenager with a vision for her future.

She and her two younger brothers lived with their parents, Elliott and Virginia Jefferson, on Fall Hill Avenue. Betty walked every day to James Monroe High School--then housed in the big brick building that became Maury School, then Maury Commons condominiums.

As she walked, she thought about what she wanted to accomplish.

First, to learn to swim. She'd have to do that, she knew, to graduate from Mary Washington College.

And second, to be truly independent. She wanted to live on her own and support herself for at least a year before settling into married life and motherhood.

That's exactly what happened. Betty Jefferson graduated from Mary Washington in 1952, then moved to Alexandria, lived in a rented room and taught English and dramatic arts at George Washington High School.

Some of her students were 19 years old. So was she.

Her father had worked for the Sylvania plant, but he died during her senior year of college. So Betty sent much of her $3,000 salary for the year back home to help support her mother and brothers.

She also corresponded with a boyfriend from back home.

She'd met Preston Blaisdell when she was just 15, when he tagged along on a double date with Betty and her boyfriend, and Betty's best friend and her boyfriend--Preston's cousin. Later, Preston asked the cousin for Betty's phone number.

He was four years older, already an Army veteran, and Betty knew her parents would never let them go on real dates together. They saw each other instead in groups of friends, and each dated other people as well.

Gradually, though, their relationship grew more serious.

And after that first year of teaching, Betty Jefferson came back to town and married Preston Blaisdell of Stafford County. They were united in 1953 at Fredericksburg Baptist Church.

MARRIED LIFE AND CAREER

Besides her activities with Fredericksburg Baptist Church and the Woman's Club of Fredericksburg, Betty Blaisdell volunteers throughout the community. Here's just a sampling of her civic works. She has long been involved with the Salvation Army Woman's Auxiliary, working on Thanksgiving, Christmas, Camp Happyland and red-kettle programs. She often rings the bell in front of the Ben Franklin on Caroline Street at Christmastime--most recently with grandson Danny, a University of Mary Washington student. Always a teacher, Blaisdell volunteers regularly with Olde Forge Junction, an after-school program for at-risk children from Rocky Run Elementary School in Stafford County. She and other volunteers help with homework, teach values such as honesty and integrity, and work on skill areas identified by pupils' classroom teachers. More recently, she's tutored a group of African refugee children newly arrived in the United States, helping them learn English and American culture. With her husband, Preston Blaisdell, she helped initiate the ElderStudy program 16 years ago at Mary Washington. They're also active in the Stafford Historic Society, and Betty Blaisdell is on the board of directors. She's been active with the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. And she recently started serving on the James Monroe High School 60th Reunion Committee and a JM scholarship committee. "I like people, I really do," she said. "My whole life, I wanted to be around people." --Laura Moyer

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Date published: 4/20/2009