VALDOSTA — City council members offered their remembrances of the late Bette Bechtel, the first woman elected to Valdosta’s city council.

Elizabeth “Bette” Bechtel was born in Moorestown, N.J., to the late Walter and Margaret Reimet, Bechtel died Dec. 23 at the age of 95.

She and her husband, Dr. H. Bernard Bechtel, moved to Valdosta in 1963. She joined the biology department at Valdosta State College (later university), where she remained until 1991.

In 1972, Bette Bechtel became the first woman ever elected to Valdosta City Council, serving in that capacity for six two-year terms, one of them as mayor pro-tem. She also served 16 years on the Greater Lowndes County Planning Commission.

“I served on City Council with Bette and learned a great deal from her over the years, said Joseph “Sonny” Vickers, city councilman and former Valdosta mayor. “She was very knowledgeable. You could always go to her with questions and she would do what she could to provide guidance and help. I even spoke with her several times after she left office and she continued to help. I admired her for her involvement in the community. She was a great leader. She is someone this city will continue to admire and respect.” 

Tim Carroll, city councilman and mayor pro-tem, lived down the street from Bechtel and served with her on the Historic Preservation Commission and the planning commission.

“She and Bern were the local wildlife experts that were called in when Inner Perimeter Road was being built,” Carroll said. “They helped identify gopher tortoise and eastern indigo snake habitats, both of which are endangered and indigenous to our area. When I joined the planning commission, she and Bern took me under their wing. Every Sunday before a planning commission meeting, they would take me to look at the properties connected to the cases we would have the following week. We did that for two years, and I learned so much from her doing that. The city is losing a piece of history.”

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.