Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Brenkert was the widow of late UM engineering Dean Emeritus Karl Brenkert Jr. Submitted photo
Elizabeth “Betty” Scott Brenkert of Colorado Springs, Colorado, died peacefully on March 22, 2017, at the age of 93. She is best remembered for her journalistic excellence and service to the communities in which she lived, including Oxford.
Brenkert was born in Detroit on July 8, 1923, to Angus and Lillian Scott. She attended Sophie Newcomb College in New Orleans and earned her journalism degree in 1944 from the University of Michigan, where she was an active member of the Delta Gamma sorority.
She began her journalism career at Sunset magazine in the 1950s and moved to Oxford with her family in 1964. While working as an editor, staff writer and photographer at the Oxford Eagle, Brenkert earned numerous awards from the Mississippi Press Women’s Association and Associated Press.
While serving on the Oxford Housing Authority, she became Oxford’s first female chairman of a city board. She served more than 20 years with the local chapters of the American Red Cross and United Way and was appointed to the board of directors for both organizations. While raising five children, she was involved in every aspect of their formative years, all while maintaining a loving, supportive home.
Brenkert is preceded in death by her husband of 66 years, Karl Brenkert Jr., two sisters, Leyla Scott Ballman and Clara May Scott, and a grandson. She is survived by her five children, Gail Brenkert of Spokane, Washington; Karl “Buzz” Brenkert III of Cincinnati; Dr. Pamela Reband of Sierra Vista, Arizona; Scott Brenkert of Phoenix; and retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Eric Brenkert of Monument, Colorado; eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit in May. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Elizabeth and Karl Brenkert Scholarship Endowment Fund in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Mississippi, 406 University Ave., Oxford, MS 38655, or https://www.umfoundation.com/makeagift/.