Betty Ann Scheib Stevens,90, of Lake Charles, passed away peacefully in the comfort of her home on Friday, March 31, 2023, with her family at her side.
Betty was a native of New Orleans, where she graduated from St. Mary’s Dominican High School and Loyola University. She was an x-ray technician at Ochsner Clinic. Her family was very active in the yachting community. Her Father was the Commodore of the Southern Yacht Club in New Orleans and Gulf yachting Association. Her mother was very active in the Southern Yacht Club and wrote the “History of the Southern Yacht Club” published in 1986.
Betty will be forever loved by her husband of 67 years. She met the love of her life while visiting a friend at LSU medical school in New Orleans when she caught the eye of Dr. Lehrue Stevens Jr. They married in 1955 and in 1964, Betty and Lehrue made Lake Charles their home. She was a loving wife and devoted mother to her children Shawn Marie, Lehrue III, and Eric Trammell. She was immensely proud of her family and her husband’s dedication in establishing the Pathology Laboratory as a reference laboratory for Southwest and Central Louisiana, the Lake Charles Racquet Club, and the Bayou Pines Development.
As many will remember, Betty was an amazing tennis player. She won Singles & Doubles State Championships, twice. At the age of 49, she won the State Championship in the singles 40-year-old division. Betty and her longtime tennis partner, Yvonne Pharr, were the “fearsome twosome” who terrorized the LA Ladies’ Tennis Circuit for years.
Betty immersed herself in the Lake Charles Community as a dedicated volunteer and was involved with many community programs:
She was a founding member of the Krewe of Mystique and served as Queen Anna XXVIII in 2000.
She was an active member of the Junior League of Lake Charles; she was an amazing gardener and served as President of the Planters League. She was a Calcasieu Parish Medical Auxiliary Board Member, LA State Medical Auxiliary Board Member, served as State Medical Auxiliary Chairman of International Health Activities, a Memorial Hospital Auxiliary Board Member, and a Cancer Drive & Heart Drive Volunteer.
Betty was a larger-than-life “people” person and loved to cook and entertain. She studied and graduated from La Varenne Culinary School in Paris with one of her best friends, Shirley Bonin.
Betty enjoyed bridge on Wednesday for 40 years with her beloved bridge group. She was a devoted Catholic, loving mother and “Mimi” to her family. Sundays at “Camp Mimi” became a time-honored tradition which included swimming, water skiing, drinking wine on the patio, and family dinner with her children and grandchildren. She dearly loved hiking, traveling, and snow skiing with her husband and their wide circle of friends. Betty and Lehrue were founding members of the Pelican Ski Club.
She is preceded in death by her parents, Flora Kenney Scheib and Joseph Gilbert Scheib Sr.; and her sister, Flo Mary Scheib Simonson.
She leaves to cherish her memories, her beloved husband of 67 years, Dr. Lehrue Stevens Jr.; children, Shawn Stevens Thomson of Aspen, Colo., Lehrue Stevens III (LeeAnna) and Eric Trammell Stevens (Shawn) of Lake Charles; brother, Joseph Gilbert Scheib Jr. of Madisonville, La.; grandchildren, whom she adored, Sarah Ann Carey of Sandpoint, Idaho, Savannah Stevens Wood (Frank Jr.), Lehrue Stevens IV (Sara Jae), and Samantha Rachel Stevens of Lake Charles. Earlier this year she was blessed with her first great-grandchild, Elizabeth Ann Wood.
The family would like to thank her caregivers Carolane Citizen, Judy Moreaux, Teresa Drake, Elva Jones, Vanessa Day and others from LeeAnna’s Caregiving Service who took care of her with love, care, and dignity.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be observed on Tuesday April 4, 2023, at 1 p.m. at St. Martin De Pores Catholic Church. Monsignors Jace Eskind and Harry Greig serving as celebrants. Interment will follow at Consolata Cemetery.