An eternity of service

The church bells are ringing. People are dancing everywhere as a father picks up his daughter. As the five-year-old sits back in her seat, she is informed that the war is over.

This memory marks the end of World War II and is one of the fondest of memories for Betty Jean Hayworth.

Jean Hayworth knows grit. She has been paralyzed twice, having surgeries on her right knee, foot, and elbow. She has been in the eye of a hurricane and has birthed three children. But, it is only by understanding her past, that individuals will further respect her legacy.

After her 18th birthday, the Pennsylvania native enlisted in the United States Navy on December 1st, 1959. In the 1950s, a woman enlisting in the military wasn’t as common as it is today, but with determination and bravery, Hayworth signed up for something that would forever change her life.

“My grandfather served in the Spanish-American War and went into Mexico,” Betty Jean Hayworth said.” My father and older brother served in the Army, so it seemed like a family thing for us to all serve. I was in a family of six and wasn’t sure my family could afford to send me to college, so I was looking for an option. I felt that I was following a family tradition.”

With confidence, Hayworth was sent to the Security Station in Washington D.C., for duty. She served as an analyst for the Navy Intelligence until August 1961. Her job was to use a teletype operator to find information over phone calls that were secret and not supposed to be released on an unclassified phone call.

“Doing some of the analyst work when I was stationed in Hawaii, know as Navy 85, it is a fond moment,” Hayworth said. “It was a semi-secret base for communications to the Pacific, and our job was to find as much information as we could on the unclassified phones. We would pick up on keywords, nicknames and would pick up information that they were saying. Releasing classified information can put some people or operations in jeopardy. To release information prematurely, can endanger people and other military forces.”

While her love of her country and duty was foremost, it is her love of sports that has had a concrete impact on Hayworth’s life. While in D.C., she played a quartet of sports, including basketball, volleyball, softball, and tennis.

“I qualified to go to the All-Navy Tennis Tournament in Newport, Rhode Island,” Hayworth said. “Although I blew out my knee, I was back playing basketball three months later. I normally worked until Thursday at noon, then would play a sport on the weekend. I enjoyed playing the different teams.”

After meeting and marrying her husband, Hayworth birthed the first of three children in March of 1963, Patti Hayworth was born, and soon after a son, Marcus “Skip” followed.

The family was then sent to Athens, Greece to the Hellenikon Air Base for 30 months. It is here where her youngest son was born but under extenuating circumstances.

“We were there for about a year, and five general decided to do a military coup,” Hayworth said. “They decided to kick King Constantine out of the country on April 21, 1967. Following that event, we had curfews from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and would hear shooting in the background. The following year, King Constantine attempted to retake the county, but failed and was exiled to Italy. While we were in Greece, I was pregnant with our youngest son and had to fly from Athens to Izmir, Turkey, as the OBGYN was closed up. My son was born five minutes before midnight on that day, and a day and a half later, I was headed back to Greece.”

As the family of five returned to the United States, they were station at the Kessler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, where the family was in the eye of Hurricane Camille in May of 1969.

“We arrived just in time, the day before Hurricane Camille hit,” Hayworth said. “We had just moved into a new home the day before, and that next day was like a war zone. We could hear the roof being ripped off, and the next morning we saw the Gulf of Mexico was about a foot from our front door. We were without power for a week, and it was an unusual experience.”

While in Mississippi, Hayworth begins to chase her real passion, becoming a teacher. After taking courses at the University of Southern Mississippi, the family would move to Heidelberg, Germany, for two years and Stuttgart for the third year. The family would venture into many parts of Europe.

“We took our kids everywhere,” Hayworth said. We went to Amsterdam, Italy, and saw the Pope during Easter weekend. We saw the opening of the Holy Door, which is only opened every 25 years. We visited Austria, and although our kids were young, they still remember those days.”

While in Germany, Hayworth created a girls’ basketball team for 13-16-year-olds and coached the team and a softball team. She also took courses from the University of Maryland, while in Stuttgart, Germany.

The family retired to Breckenridge in 1975, where Hayworth’s husband had siblings. The move to Breckenridge would charter a course that would make this place a home for multiple generations of the Hayworth family.

“I had to go to Cisco College for a semester and went to Tarleton State University for a year and a half to finish my secondary degree in education,” Hayworth said. “I started working as a sixth-grade teacher at East Elementary. I was soon moved to the junior high, soon after, and some of the kids I had in sixth grade, were wondering what was I doing there. I was a teacher at the junior high for five years, teaching American History and Computer Science. I had a social science composite and was moved to the high school as I could teach the economics, government, and history courses.”

Although teaching with the Breckenridge Independent School District was a passion, Hayworth also enjoyed teaching at the Texas Governors School at Lamar University for a few summers. Hayworth would teach the top 200 students from the state and serve as the assistant director of the program for the final three years.

With the commitment to service running through the Hayworth family’s blood, two of her children (Patti and Marcus) served as members of the United States Military. With a host of grandchildren expected to serve in the military, Hayworth expects some great-grandchildren to serve also.

“Patti decided to go into the Navy and was stationed at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida,” Hayworth said. “Marcus was in the communications field as a linguist and was in Navy Intelligence. He’s been station in Maine, Scotland, and other places. I want my family to know that I enjoy them. Their visits were something important to me and just being around them bought a new type of joy to my life. The great-grandchildren are just a bonus to me.”

It is her toughness and commitment to her country that has made Hayworth a pillar of the Breckenridge community.

“If I did not get married or had children, I would have stayed in the Navy and made a career out of it,” Hayworth said. “That’s how much I enjoyed it and felt I was contributing to something important. I have no qualms about my decision.

As Hayworth continues writing her opinion column at the Breckenridge American, she is hopeful that another generation of Hayworth’s will serve this country until the end of time.