SJR38 Summary

• Mrs. Betty Bailey Shirley of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, died on April 6, 2023, at age 95 after dedicating her life to mental health advocacy and children with disabilities.

• She graduated from the University of Alabama, was a member of Kappa Delta Sorority, and inspired by her late grandson Walt Gary to advocate through the RISE Center and University of Alabama CrossingPoints Program.

• Mrs. Shirley helped raise more than $3 million for the Betty Shirley Tree of Life endowment fund and was appointed by President George W. Bush in 1991 as one of his One-Thousand Points of Light; the Betty Shirley Clinic for Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the University of Alabama's Capstone Medical Center was named in her honor in 2002.

• She served as a lifetime member of the Board of Directors of the Mental Health Association of Tuscaloosa County and participated in the DCH Foundation Ball to support a psychiatric unit at DCH Regional Medical Center.

• The Alabama Legislature honors her memory and extends sympathy to her surviving family: three daughters, multiple grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.