Betty Jane Judith Kingdom

August 2, 1944 – April 12, 2026

Betty Jane Judith Kingdom, known affectionately as “Betsy” to most, passed peacefully in her sleep while in the care of professionals and her family, near her home in Sacramento, California. She faced the final stages of a terminal disease with aplomb. Notwithstanding the associated difficulties, she lived independently as long as could be expected of anyone facing the same struggles.

Born in Santa Cruz, California, to Mary Elizabeth Kingdom (Groszmann) and Irvin Brigden Kingdom, Betsy was one of six children. Betsy joins sisters Mary Elizabeth Kirkwood, Helen Grace Frances Kingdom, and Susan May Aufranc, and brother Irvin George Kingdom, all together again with their mother and father. They are survived by the youngest Kingdom sibling, William Clyde James Kingdom.

As well, Betsy is survived by cousins on her mother’s side, Merrie Helen Biddison and Gilbert Groszmann. Many of her twelve nephews and nieces – Brian, Charlie, Doug, Eric, Jeff, Jeffrey, Kim, Mike, Pandie, Susie, Tim, and Valerie – recall Betsy as the “cool aunt.” Betsy treated them all as if her son was their brother.

After graduating from Santa Cruz High School, she enrolled in what was then called San Francisco State College. Cutting short her college aspirations, she returned home to work, needing to support her brand new baby son. She worked hard her whole life, including to help fund her son’s higher education; eventually, simply to enjoy the intrinsic fruits of her labor, to interact with people from all walks of life, and to seek meaning in her personal journey.

Betsy quite literally by hand, brainpower, and shear willpower – all as a single mom doing what it took to pay the rent and buy food for herself and her child – helped put together integrated circuit board by integrated circuit board the burgeoning semiconductor, aerospace, and telecommunications industries for which California and its Silicon Valley are now so famous. After she deemed her son ready to stand on his own two large feet, she transitioned to the relatively more leisurely retail sector, where her natural affinity for conversing with total strangers won over many a new customer.

She moved to Sacramento, as did her mom and others in her family, soon after the Loma Prieta Earthquake shook much of Northern California’s central coast.

Her friends and neighbors fondly recall Betsy regaling them with tales of her wonderous, smart, tall, and insanely handsome grandson, William Aaron Shaw. William and his dad, Joshua William Shaw, Betsy’s only child, join with Josh’s wife, Silvia Solis Shaw, in looking back on so many fond memories of Betsy, especially the endless times she read to little Will when he was growing up, and they remain amazed at how many of Will’s basketball games Grandma Betsy attended so late in life – just as she did when young Josh played in high school.

She loved hiking California’s most beautiful spots, like in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Yosemite National Park, the Redwood National and State Parks, Natural Bridges State Beach, and, because she loved the ocean, anywhere along the coastline. She also enjoyed travel for travel’s sake, not only in California but across the country, once having taken, with a treasured friend in tow, a car trip from Santa Cruz to the East Coast and back.

When home, she enjoyed long walks with her various dogs, caring for her various cats, and reading voraciously. She always looked forward to speaking with and learning more about her many friends and neighbors; she really, really had fun meeting new people.

With friends too numerous to count, Betsy gathered them to her like the fresh flowers she picked in the gardens that she loved to tend wherever was her home.

Mostly, she loved her family, especially her son, her daughter-in-law, and her grandson.

Betsy could be counted on throughout her life, facing many challenges, acting courageously in several emergencies, and generally persevering.

Betsy talked about Betty Friedan, she talked about Bella Abzug, she talked about Jane Fonda, she talked about Barbara Streisand. Betsy talked about women of substance with whom one should not, would not want to trifle. She also talked about John, Bobby, Malcom, and Dr. King. Like all of them, she worked to leave the world a better place than when she found it.

Betsy was, truly: Always loving, and always loved.

Betsy will be interred at East Lawn Memorial Park & Mortuary in Elk Grove. There will be a private family graveside service and celebration of her life.

In lieu of flowers or gifts, we simply ask that you please – please – urge your loved ones to stop smoking, immediately.