BettyLou was born and raised in Plant City, Florida. After graduating from high school, she moved to Gainesville, Florida where she attended Santa Fe Community College prior to joining the Air Force. She was a computer operator and was stationed at Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii and Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado Springs, Colorado. After her active-duty military service, she returned to Gainesville and earned a philosophy bachelor’s degree in math and symbolic logic from the University of Florida. While in school in Gainesville she joined the Army Reserve 301st Field Hospital where she became a medic and met her husband, Randy Reid. They were married on Good Friday (April 1st) 1983. They have 2 children, David & Kimberly, and 4 grandchildren, Kayden, Harper, Jackson, & John. Her brother, Thomas Kirby Soar, still resides in Plant City. BettyLou was a master naturalist, a tennis and golf aficionado and a lifelong member of the Gator Nation. BettyLou was an active member of Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola Florida and the Blackwater Pyrates.
