FORT WORTH, Texas – Betty LaRue (Sibley) Covalt, 83, passed away Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Fort Worth.
Celebration of her Life: 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 12, in the Longhorn Auditorium at Trinity Terrace, 1600 Texas Street, Fort Worth, Texas, with Chaplin Tricia Baldwin officiating. Graveside: A private family graveside service at Greenwood Memorial Park, officiated by Pastor Justin Beadles, LaRue’s nephew and Senior Pastor at Countryside Baptist Church in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Memorials: Trinity Terrace Chapel Fund at Trinity Terrace, 1600 Texas Street, Fort Worth, Texas 76102 or James L. West Alzheimer’s Center, 1111 Summit Avenue, Fort Worth, Texas 76102.
The precious daughter of Zelma (McCarty) Sibley and Victor Bruce Sibley, LaRue was born Dec. 23, 1935, in Kansas City, Kansas and grew up in Lewis, Kansas. She attended the University of Kansas before transferring and graduating from Wichita State University.
While at WSU she met the love of her life, Austin Covalt. They celebrated 57 years of marriage before his passing in 2014. LaRue and Austin lived their early married years in Sterling, Kansas, where LaRue began work on her Master’s Degree in Elementary Education at Sterling College and later completed at Fort Hays State University after moving to Russell, Kansas in 1967. LaRue touched many young lives during her 25 year career as an elementary school teacher in Russell. LaRue and Austin had three children and two grandsons. She was fiercely loyal to her family and she loved being with them. Her most cherished week every year was in May when the three children and their family’s, along with her brother and his family would gather in Fort Worth for the Colonial Golf Tournament.
In 2012, after 45 years in Russell and too many wonderful friends and memories to count, LaRue made the most difficult decision to relocate closer to family due to Austin’s progression of Alzheimer’s disease so they moved to Fort Worth. After Austin’s passing, sadly, LaRue began enduring this same horrible disease in 2016. Together, as a family, the decision was prayerfully made to donate LaRue’s brain to The Brain Bank at UNTHSC for the specific benefit of Alzheimer’s research.
The family would like to thank the entire staff at Trinity Terrace for providing our mother a wonderful home since 2012. And, since May of this year, we especially extend our deepest gratitude to the Memory Care Unit, Emily Rider LVN, and all of the other angels who love and care so deeply for these residents who are in such a vulnerable state.
LaRue was preceded in death by her husband, Austin; her parents, Zelma and Bruce Sibley; and her brother, Veryl Sibley.
Survivors: Daughters, Ann Clinkscales and husband, Jim, of Fort Worth, and Sue Nevius and husband, Scott, of Valencia, CA; son, David Covalt of Arlington, TX; grandsons, Baird Clinkscales of Denver, CO and Austin Clinkscales of Dallas, TX; niece, Stephanie Chapman; and nephews, Greg Covalt, Jason Covalt, Geoff Covalt, Grant Beadles, Justin Beadles and their families.