Obituary: Betty Wright, widow of former U.S. House Speaker Jim Wright

For more than 40 years, through good times and bad, Jim and Betty Wright stood side by side, supporting and loving each other.

Their commitment to each other didn’t waver as their life veered from the high of his serving as the 48th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives to the low of his resigning amid a House ethics investigation.

On Wednesday, two months after her husband died, Mrs. Wright died. She was 91.

On Sunday, she will be buried next to him at City Greenwood Cemetery in Weatherford.

“She loved Jim, doted on him,” said Jean Stevens, a decades-long friend. “And he loved her.”

“After Jim died, she would look at the TV, see his picture [during newscasts], wave at him and say, ‘Hi, sweetie,’” said Jamie Bodiford Brinkley, a longtime family friend. “She loved him.”

The early years

Betty Hay was born Nov. 25, 1923, to Mr. and Mrs. William L. Hay in St. Louis. They divorced when she was young, and her childhood wasn’t easy. Her mother had rheumatic fever and was unable to work.

Described by family as a “teenage dancing prodigy,” she went to work in her teens, turning her tap dancing lessons “into a moneymaking venture, working in nightclub chorus lines,” according to a 1987 news article.

She attended the St. Elizabeth Academy and Notre Dame High School and graduated from Rubicam College in St. Louis. She later attended the University of Houston and studied Spanish at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Va.

“I’m a product of what happened to me,” she said in a 1986 interview. “I have really no family to speak of, so I have lived all my life just doing what I had to do to make a living.”

Mrs. Wright and her first husband, a pilot, moved to Fort Worth in the late 1940s. When that marriage ended in divorce, she took at job at the Hotel Texas, now the Hilton Fort Worth, as an executive secretary.

She was later hired to work in Wright’s congressional office, first in Fort Worth and then in Washington, D.C. She later worked as assistant to the chair of the Public Works subcommittee.

‘Best asset’

As she worked in his congressional office, the two began dating after Wright’s first 30-year marriage to Mab Wright ended in divorce.

After they married in 1972, Jim Wright was known to write poetry for her, buy her trinkets such as gold hearts and keep a photo album detailing the “Many Moods of Betty.”

“Betty was in a class of her own,” said Kay Wright Nelson, one of Wright’s children from his first marriage who lives in South Carolina. “She was formidable, and Dad loved her with all of his heart.

“She was beautiful lady.”

The former first lady of the U.S. House was described through the years as gracious, polite and somewhat reserved — but most of all protective and fiercely dedicated to her husband.

She helped Wright in many ways, from helping him to eat better to tamping down his quick temper.

Many people said she “upgraded” her husband’s appearance.

“He no longer dresses like a racehorse tout,” Bill Newbold, a Texan and lobbyist, said in 1987. “She has forced him to be not just a political leader but a human being as well.”

“She was pretty ambitious for him,” a Washington acquaintance once said. “In that way, she was good for him.”

“She came along at the perfect time in Jim’s life,” a longtime friend once told the Star-Telegram. “If it weren’t for her and her impact, Jim would probably at best be chairman of the Public Works and Transportation Committee.”

She once described herself as a homemaker at heart.

“She was the ultimate hostess, career woman, faithful wife and a wonderful stepmother to his children,” Brinkley said. “She was a super lady, like a movie star.

“How do you share a place on the stage with a person like Jim Wright? But she did, and she did so graciously.”

Jim Wright himself was known to describe his wife as his “best asset.”

‘All around good person’

During their time in Washington, Mrs. Wright’s activities included the International Neighbors Club, the Capitol Speakers Club and the Congressional Wives Club.

As wife of the House’s majority leader, Mrs. Wright traveled to many foreign countries, from Spain and France to Israel and Egypt.

In 1989, after Wright’s political career ended, the two returned home to Fort Worth, settling into a comfortable routine.

Mrs. Wright, known for her love of fashion, bright colors and bright clothes, redecorated their home in Fort Worth. She spent time with her husband, attending plays, musical performances and dance recitals and playing tennis.

She even joined a Taps-n-Tunes group that traveled to nursing homes and other venues, performing a show that included dancing and singing, said Norma Ritchson, Wright’s longtime assistant.

“She was very genuine,” Stevens said. “She was very loving and an all around good person.”

Survivors include four stepchildren and numerous stepgrandchildren.

This report includes material from the Star-Telegram archives.

This story was originally published July 17, 2015 at 7:41 PM with the headline "Obituary: Betty Wright, widow of former U.S. House Speaker Jim Wright."