Betty Ann Bradbury

Betty Ann Bradbury passed away on June 30, 2025.

Born in 1929 in New York City, and raised in Richmond, VA., Betty A. Bradbury was the daughter of Frank M. Bradbury, Sr., and Elsie Staples Bradbury (Niederloh). She is survived by her niece, Kathryn Bradbury Homer, of Sand Diego, CA.

After attending Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, in Lynchburg, VA., she graduated as a Registered Nurse from Johns Hopkins Hospital School of Nursing/Johns Hopkins University, with a BS in Nursing in 1952. She graduated from the Frontier Graduate School of Midwifery on the Frontier Nursing Service, Inc., Hyden, Ky., and became a Certified Midwife – a “Nurse on Horseback” – in the Kentucky Mountains in 1953. Later she completed an M.Ed in secondary education with a biology concentration from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, combining careers in both nursing and education. Specializing in Maternity, Public Health, and Women’s Health care for over 35 years, Ms. Bradbury joined the Highlands County Health Department as an Advanced Registered Nurse-Practitioner from 1988 to 1993, after moving to Lake Placid, FL., in 1980.

In 1993, she was awarded a dual-appointment by the FL Department of Health (HRS) as a State Nursing Consultant and the Florida Regional Clinical Coordinator for the Community-Based Nurse-Midwifery Education Program (CNEP) of the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing, Hyden, KY. This was the original school from which she graduated herself in 1953, only now it was university-based “distance education”, with students and graduates in all 50 states. A member of the American College of Nurse-Midwives and the Florida Chapters of the ACNM, she was awarded recognition in 1997 by this organization: “For your tireless efforts on behalf of nurse-midwifery students”. Upon retirement, the Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing, of the Frontier nursing Service, Inc., Hydent, Kentucky, awarded her with Faculty Emeritus status for “Outstanding Performance a s Regional Clinical Coordinator for the State of Florida”.

She retired in June, 2000, after having supervised and graduated some 50 students as Certified Nurse-Midwives to serve women and their families throughout the state of Florida and elsewhere in the US. After retirement, she was trained, certified, and appointed by Goc. Jeb Bush to serve as a volunteer Ombudsman for Highlands/Hardee Counties, with the South Central Florida Ombudsman Council under the Florida Department of Elder Affairs, spending her post-retirement years helping elders in nursing homes and other licensed facilities. She was also a past member of the Lake Placid Sun ‘N’ Lake Golf Association and the Sun ‘N’ Lake Bridge Club, as well as the Florida Trail Association and the Highlands County Audubon Society.

A member of the St. Catherine Catholic Parish in Sebring, FL., she served as Lector and Eucharistic Minister. In May, 2003 she moved back to Kentucky as a resident of Madonna Manor, Villa Hills, KY. Memorial contributions may be made to the Benedictine Sisters of St. Walburg Montastery, 2500 Amsterdam Rd., Villa Hills, KY 41017.

A mass for Betty will be held on Tuesday, July 8th at 11:00am at Madonna Manor.