Mrs. Dora Elizabeth (Beth) Higginbotham Bitner, age 83 of Houston County, Texas, formerly a resident of the City of Houston, passed away at home on April 1, 2010, on her beloved family farm in the Lone Pine Community, near Lovelady, after a recent illness during which she was lovingly cared for by her devoted husband Orlan E. Bitner, Sr, family, and friends. Mrs. Bitner the oldest child of Joe and Laura Higginbotham, was born July 11, 1926, at the home of her maternal grandparents, Leonard Hampton (Stell) and Elizabeth Spence Sharp, on the Sharp family farm near Crockett, Texas. Her paternal grandparents were Samuel Houston and Dora Genora Hassell Higginbotham of Anderson and Houston Counties. The Bitner, Higginbotham, Hassell, Spence and Sharp families have lived in Houston and Anderson Counties for many generations, some going back to the time of the Republic of Texas. She attended school in the Lone Pine Community and Lovelady High School in Houston County, graduating from South Park High School and Lamar Junior College in Beaumont, where her family moved for her father to work in the war effort.

Mrs. Bitner and Orlan married May 19, 1945, at South Park Methodist Church in Beaumont, moving to Houston where they were in the plumbing and home building business. She earned her degree from the University of Houston, taught in the Alief School District for fifteen years and began the first kindergarten program in Alief. Mrs. Bitner retired from teaching to work in the family business, Keith Plumbing Company, which Beth and Orlan continued to operate until retiring, selling their City of Houston home, and moving full-time to their Houston County farm.

Survivors include her husband of sixty-five years Orlan E. Bitner, Sr. their children, Orlan E. Bitner, Jr. and his wife Jan, of Houston, Janet Elizabeth Bitner, of Austin, Judith Ann Bitner Barron and her husband Kevin, of Tomball and William Joseph Bitner and his wife Michelle, of Austin; and grandsons Jonathan, Jordan, Austin, Jameson, and Kyle; sisters Betty Jo Petty and Laura Sue Davis and her husband John Houston Davis III, of Houston; sisters-in-law Ernestine (Kelley) Bitner, of Houston and Trinity, wife of Ray Bitner, Dorothy Brasher, of Bryan, Mary Brasher Wiggins, of Leander, Jean Brasher Westmoreland, of Bryan, and Harriet "Judy" Wade Higginbotham, of Houston and Frankston, wife of Gene Higginbotham; and by many nieces, nephews, and cousins, as well as many loving friends.

Preceded in death by her parents Joe Austin and Laura Evin (Sharp) Higginbotham; father and mother-in-law William and Ola Bitner Brasher; brother Samuel Eugene Higginbotham; and brothers-in-law Gordon Ray Bitner, and Robert H. Petty.

Funeral Services for Mrs. Dora Elizabeth (Beth) Higginbotham Bitner were held Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at 11:00 a.m. in the First United Methodist Church with Dr. Jerry House. Interment followed in the Evergreen Memorial Park. Callaway-Allee Funeral Home