Betty Ann Turner Jowers, age 98, of Ambrose, Georgia passed away peacefully on September 10, 2026. Betty was born to the late Tressie Ferguson Shaffer and William Herbert Turner in Ambrose on September 6, 1928 and spent most of her life in Coffee County, Georgia. A devoted mother and grandmother, she selflessly cared for others her whole life.
Betty was a good and faithful servant. She was an active member of DeBerry Baptist Church in Ambrose for many decades, where she served as a Sunday school teacher and as the church pianist. While growing up during the Great Depression, she learned to play piano through the Federal Music Project, which offered free music lessons to children in need. Public funding for one child like Betty became a lifetime of music that blessed hundreds of others.
Though she spent many of her childhood years in Jacksonville, Florida, Betty returned home to Ambrose when she married Carl Jowers and started a family. There, she worked as a farmer, fed dozens of field hands a homecooked lunch every day, and still found time to serve as the Vice President of the Broxton Parent-Teachers Association, volunteering with each of her four children’s classes. When her children graduated from Broxton High School, Betty was not done serving. She pursued a second career as a nurse and graduated at the top of her class. She also ran an antique store—for pleasure as much as for business—in which she carefully curated all the beautiful furniture and fineries that she loved to admire and study. After Carl died, she served as the steward of the family farm that she forever cherished on aptly named Jowers Buchan Road.
Betty’s desire to help those she loved never diminished. She became more like a mother than a grandmother to more than one grandchild who cherished her. Even in her late 90s, Betty could still be found on a garden stool pulling weeds and pruning hedges, and she never lost her touch for frying the perfect catfish fillet. Her extraordinary resilience, intelligence, and work ethic garnered universal respect, leading her late grandson Brandon Jowers to affectionately dub her the CEO of the family. She regularly expressed enthusiastic approval of this title.
Betty radiated inner light and love, which was founded in her unwavering faith in God. She lives on through the many people she touched with her servant’s heart and the family who continue to admire and love her beyond measure.
Betty is survived by three children, Malcolm Leaston Jowers (Beth), Riki Stone, and Philip Jowers (Gretta); four grandchildren, Jill Overcash (Michael), Randi Kuns (Eric), Jody Jowers (Melissa), and Laurie Ann Taylor (Dan); and five greatgrandchildren, Christian Jowers and Lizzie, JP, Mac, and Kaylee Overcash. She is preceded in death by her parents and loving stepfather Frank Shaffer; daughter and best friend Laurie Jowers Ware; beloved grandson Brandon Carlton Jowers; sister Jacquelyn Turner Bromley, and husband Carl Leaston Jowers.
Funeral service and interment will be held Saturday, September 19, at 2 p.m. at DeBerry Baptist Church in Ambrose, Georgia. The family will receive friends in the church sanctuary before the service at 1 p.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to DeBerry Baptist Church.