Regardless of whomever came knocking, Elizabeth VanHoy’s door was always open. She was a model of sincere generosity, always putting others before herself and often offering her own home as a sanctuary for those in need.
“It didn’t matter who it was, she was going to care for whoever needed it,” said her husband, Kenneth VanHoy. “If anybody needed anything or a place to live, she’d always just say ‘send them my way.’”
VanHoy was known by many for the selfless way she cared for others, always devoting all of her time and attention to those who needed it most. She would take at-risk teenagers and young adults into her home and provide them with support and structure in what they called “camp grandma,” said her son, Foster Hockett Jr.
“Kids would be flown in from Colorado, Illinois, wherever they were from,” he said. “We had four to five people that came to live with us, and one stayed for a couple years. That was just what she did.”
Elizabeth Cheatham Hockett VanHoy, called Betsy by those closest to her, of High Falls, died Tuesday from complications of amyloidosis at Emory Midtown Hospital. She was 72.
Her funeral will be held at 11 a.m. today at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Griffin. Interment will follow immediately at Monroe Hills Memorial Gardens in Forsyth. Monroe County Memorial Chapel, Forsyth is in charge of the arrangements.
VanHoy was a former kindergarten teacher at Northside Elementary School, where she dedicated her career to help shape the minds and morals of underprivileged students. She helped them so much, in fact, that her son, Robert Hockett, remembers her being approached by former students on several occasions.
“We’d be in the grocery store and three or so huge guys would walk over,” he said. “They’d pick her right up off the ground, hug her and say, ‘you taught us how to read.’”
Anytime there was a death in her community, VanHoy would treat the grieving family to what she referred to as a “funeral roast,” Kenneth VanHoy said. She would buy the biggest roast she could find, cook it and deliver it to the home of the family so they wouldn’t have to worry about cooking.
According to those who knew her, VanHoy was the kind of person you could count on for anything and everything. She didn’t shy away from an opportunity to help somebody in need, and she was what many called a “universal mother.” She was always taking care of everybody, said longtime friend, Debbie Dutton.
“You could always depend on her for whatever you needed her for,” she said. “She was the person we all went to for advice, and we all thought of her as our best friend. The world has lost a great lady.”
In addition to her husband and two sons, VanHoy is survived by her mother, Sarah Baldwin Cheatham of Atlanta; another son, Bret VanHoy of York, Pa.; three sisters, Sally Copeland of Highlands, N.C., Lindley Boggess of Camp Verde, Ariz., and Cecil Hines of Highlands, N.C.; one brother, Robert Cheatham of Gay, Ga.; 18 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
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