Lifetime Globe-Miami resident Betty Jean Beneteau Rayes, 89, passed on Nov. 12, 2022. Betty’s life was her family, church and community. Her career in community service started at the Miami YMCA the day after graduation from Miami High School. She spent the next 30 years as the YMCA’s business manager/ executive secretary and as a volunteer in many other community organizations.
In 1968, as the volunteer manager of the Miami Chamber of Commerce, she was instrumental in negotiations with the NBA’s newest franchise, the Phoenix Suns, to play its very first NBA exhibition game in, of all places, the Miami High School Gym.
At Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Church in Miami she taught catechism classes and served on numerous committees, including the Finance Committee for more than 40 years.
Betty was an outstanding student and athlete in high school. After high school she took up bowling and soon was recognized statewide as one of the top women bowlers. She bowled 61 years in Globe-Miami leagues and in the Valley. She won many titles, participating in 55 state tournaments and 10 national W.I.B.C. tournaments.
In 1983, Betty married Nick Rayes and became an important part of the Rayes family. She will be deeply missed by her family and friends. She was predeceased by her husband Nick Rayes, her mother and father, Aline Mary Beneteau and Roland Maurice Beneteau, and her brothers, George and Roland Beneteau. She is survived by the four Rayes children, Louis, Doug, Emily and Neil, plus 15 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. on Feb. 4, 2023, at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Church in Miami, Arizona, with interment at Globe Cemetery at 2:30 p.m.
