Betty Blane Phelps

Notes:

CENSUS RECORDS

1940 Census
Name: Bettey Phelps
Age: 6
Estimated birth year: abt 1934
Gender: Female
Race: White
Birthplace: Virginia
Marital Status: Single
Relation to Head of House: Daughter
Home in 1940: North Fork, Washington, Virginia
Street: East At Highway No 19 In Moccasin Gap
Inferred Residence in 1935: Rural, Washington, Virginia
Residence in 1935: Rural, Washington, Virginia
Resident on farm in 1935: Yes
Attended School or College: No
Highest Grade Completed: None
Household Members:
Name Age
Frank B Phelps 45
Dora Phelps 50
Irene Phelps 13
Bettey Phelps 6

She died at the Lynchburg Training Center and Hospital, which informant is listed as the records of the Lynchburg Training Center and Hospital. The facility's original name was the Virginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded, and during the 1920's was the center for the eugenics movement and force sterilizations. In the 1950's the facility embraced the national movement of training for persons having intellectual disabilities, and the name was changed to the Lynchburg Training Center. The center also had a large operational farm, providing food for the center and employment for the residents.

In 1972 the facility was reorganized into seven divisions based on function: Pediatrics, Independent Living, Severely Retarded and Infirm, Intensive Social Rehabilitation, Psychiatric, Ambulatory and Hospital (Medical-Surgical). Overcrowding was a continuous problem with residents ranging in age from 3 to 83, and were in the severe to profound range of mental/intellectual impairments. Many also had severe physical disabilities.

No doubt Betty had a cognitive disability of some sort. We have no idea when she was admitted to the facility. Since her father died in 1947, when she was a child, and her mother died in 1966, she most likely was placed there either before or after her mother's death. I wonder if the overcrowding led to her intestinal difficulties lead to her death because it wasn't diagnosed in time.

Birth:
Virginia, Births, 1864-2014. Virginia Department of Health, Richmond, Virginia.
Name: Betty Blane Phelps
Birth Date: 26 Mar 1934
Birth Place: Washington Co. VA



Buried:
Grave location and photo of death certificate:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=159713377

Died:
Virginia, Deaths, 1912-2014. Virginia Department of Health, Richmond, Virginia.
Name: Betty Blane Phelps
Gender: Female
Race: White
Age at Death: 46
Birth Date: 26 Mar 1934
Death Date: 8 Feb 1981
Cause of Death: severe generalized perotinitis, intestinal perforation; possible ulcerative colitis
Death Place: Madison Heights, Amherst, Virginia, Lynchburg Training School and Hospital.
Registration Date: 20 Feb 1981
Father: Frank B Phelps
Mother: Dora Pendleton