Betty Jean Jernigan

GARNER - Betty Jean Jernigan, 78, of Garner, NC, went home on January 25, 2021. She was born in Whynot, NC, a fact she was very proud of, to the late Robert and Lena Cecil of Garner, NC. Betty Jean grew up near Smokey Hollow and in later life loved riding around to see the progress Raleigh had made in her area. She is a graduate of Needham Broughton High School. She retired from Triangle Automated Controls , where she was the bookkeeper, cook, and jokester, but most of all she loved each of them. She is survived by her husband of 59 years, Charles Elton Jernigan, her daughter Debbie and significant other Wayne Stephenson, her son Danny Jernigan, his children Sara and Denny Ide, Ashley Long and Marcus Knight, Johnny Frye, and Danny Wade Jernigan II, plus her great grandbabies. Betty Jean was a member of the Beach Shaggers National Hall of Fame, North Carolina Hall of Fame, and the Living Legends of Dance of North Myrtle Beach. She was the matriarch of our family, and we loved her beyond words. She loved and was extremely proud of her shagging family. Her personality was larger than life which she enjoyed to the fullest. (“What a Difference a Day Makes”, Esther Phillips) Memorials may be made to Hall of Fame Foundation, PO Box 4070, North Myrtle Beach, SC 29597. A memorial service will be held on February 20, 2021, at two o’clock PM, at Bryan-Lee Funeral Home in Garner, NC. POST FROM FACEBOOK by Milton Nowell The following tribute to Betty Jean was written by Milton Nowell and posted on Facebook. I am sharing it with permission from Milton. If you know Betty Jean you will chuckle and think of you own memories of her as you read how well Milton “nails the essence” of her in his description. If you dont know Betty Jean very well you will know her well when you finish this read. AUTHOR MILTON NOWELL Well, we have lost one of the great female dancers ever to grace the floor in Betty Jean Jernigan. To say it is a great loss to our dance culture is a profound understatement. Charles and Betty were a foundational couple that helped propel the dance forward from the doldrums of the western and disco sounds of the mid to late 70s, when dance contests began a comeback and help make our dance and music popular again, spawned beach clubs and beer joints, and helped establish the dance and music as the iconic lifestyle we had known for a long time. Betty Jean had a wonderful wit, was brash, sometimes didnt have a filter and would say what was on her mind, and we loved her for that. She told it like it was, as many of us were brought up to do. There was no political correctness in her upbringing, it was either true or not, right or wrong, good or bad. There was no appeasement because she had to. She was an All-American gal. And when you were her friend, you were one for life, thick or thin. We need more like her. We will miss not having that, I know I will. She and Charles had a terrific style of dance, liked to dance fast, and she could do everything he could do. They won more contests than I can remember, and danced in hundreds, and loved them all. The comradery and friendships that developed from those early days turned into lifelong friendships because we all grew up in this together. They were one of the leaders along with so many other great dancers and couples of that era. You can bet one thing, if you heard Esther Phillips singing “What a Difference a Day Makes”, Betty and Charles were dancing their asses off to it. That was their theme song. Turns out, the song is prophetic, too. A day can make so much of a difference. One day our friend is here, and the next, she is not. She grew up with Norfleet and George Ennis, and Norfleet said she was the only person they were ever scared of, and I truly think they were up until the end. She commanded respect, she had earned respect, and she got respect from all I have ever seen. I surely loved and respected her since I met her and Charles so many years ago. I will miss her hugging me when coming into a joint. I will miss watching her dance, her smile, and her personality that made her special. She was one of a kind, she was ours, and for that we are eternally thankful. Love you Betty Jean. We will all miss you so very much. What a difference a day makes. Milton Nowell