By Rebecca Rider
rebecca.rider@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — There was more to Betty Shaver than met the eye. Shaver, who died July 1, was a member of the Salisbury Lions Club and those who knew her said the former teacher poured her life into the community.

“It didn’t matter what the project was in the Lion’s Club, she was on it,” Wayne Kennerly, long-time member and former president of the Salisbury Lions Club, remembered.

Born in Davie County in 1932, Shaver — then Betty Sprinkle — soon settled in Salisbury. She met her husband, Frank Shaver, while attending Catawba College. Kepley, an old friend of Frank’s, said the three of them would go grab breakfast during an early morning break between classes.

“She was a marvelous person,” he said.

Kennerly remembers her as a person who didn’t know the meaning of the word “no.”

“She was always in the forefront of everything that went on,” he said.

Shaver held every office in the Salisbury Lion’s Club, including serving as its president from 1998 to 1999, and was named Lion of the year in 1996, Kennerly said. Her husband Frank, former principal of Knox Middle and Wiley schools, was elected district governor in 1996, and Kennerly joked that it was Betty who did all the work. Kennerly said she always helped out with programs and hospitality, and helped dozens of children in the Salisbury area get glasses.

“She personally drug them in there,” he said, chuckling as he remembered.

Kennerly also said that Shaver spent a week every summer volunteering at Camp Dogwood, a camp for the blind and visually impaired in Sherrills Ford. According to previous Salisbury Post articles, Shaver and Frank devoted much of their time and energy to helping exceptional children. The couple had two sons who died young of an unnamed neurodegenerative disorder.

“She gave her life to working with children,” Kepley said.

And she gave much of her time to the Lion’s Club. Both Kepley and Kennerly recall a time that Shaver personally tracked down 100 door prizes from local businesses for the club’s annual golf tournament.

According to her obituary, Shaver helped start an enrichment center for exceptional children who were unable to attend school. When her husband died, Shaver established an endowment scholarship for education students with Catawba in his honor. But Kennerly said she was very quiet about the good she did in the community, and didn’t want a lot of attention.

“She didn’t show off. She just did,” he said.

Shaver was also named named a Jack Stickley Fellow for dedicated humanitarian service to the Lions Foundation, a Melvin Jones fellow for dedicated humanitarian service for Lions International, received a certificate of appreciation from the National President of Lions for her work and was a life member of the Lions Foundation.

But Kennerly said he’ll always remember her as the lady who loved to travel, who had an unexpected love for Las Vegas and nickel and dime casinos and who spent her life serving her community quietly, never asking for thanks or recognition.

“She was dynamite,” he said.

A funeral service was held for Shaver Wednesday at St. John’s Lutheran Church, followed by a private burial at Union Lutheran Church.

Contact reporter Rebecca Rider at 704-797-4264.