ELIZABETH (LIBBY) BEATTY WILSON, 94, of Phoebus, departed this life on Friday, July 4 at 8:00pm in Riverside Regional Medical Center.

Wilson was born in East Liverpool, Ohio on August 15, 1930, the youngest daughter of Harold C. Downard and Helen Welch Downard.

Music became a life-long passion for Libby Downard and at age 17, after winning the blue ribbon in Ohio’s State Voice Competition, she was invited to perform as the contralto soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

Educated at Miami University, the College of William & Mary and Old Dominion University, Wilson was a career educator and guidance counselor with Hampton City Public Schools.

Hampton City Official, O’Marie White asked Wilson to write the curriculum for and to direct Hampton’s highly successful after-school Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) Sesame Street program.

Wilson was a member of the Fox Hill Central United Methodist Church where she served as Music Director. As one family member expressed it, “[She] was music.”

Survivors include her daughter, Martha Gaye Beatty (deceased spouse, John Clayton) King of Henrico, Virginia and her son, Daniel Harold (spouse, Joan Winn) Beatty of North Chesterfield, Virginia;

Wilson’s adored grandchildren include Brian Daniel (spouse, Whitney Mayer) King, Christopher Dylan King, Katharine Beatty (spouse, James Edward III) Courtney, Lauren Beatty (spouse, John Stanley) Blekicki and Meghan Beatty (spouse, Samuel Lee) Ratcliff.

Her much loved great grandchildren include Bear Patrick King; Mackenzie Blair Courtney, Mabry Winn Courtney, James Edward Courtney IV and Campbell Davison Courtney; Georgia Ann Blekicki, Henry Winn Blekicki, Silas Daniel Blekicki and Walter Lewis Blekicki; Virginia Mae Ratcliff and Samuel Lee Ratcliff, Jr.

An honorary/memorial gathering event is planned, and the time and place will be announced at a later time.