Betty Hamilton Lake, beloved wife, mother, and one of the state's strongest voices for history and the medical community, died at the age of 94.

A native Mississippian, Mrs. Lake was born in Jackson on February 5, 1928 to the late Lurline Clark Hamilton and Robert Buck Hamilton. She was the granddaughter of Colonel Jones Stewart Hamilton and Fannie Buck Hamilton, and a descendant of Duncan Stewart, the inaugural lieutenant governor of Mississippi. She was raised most of her childhood at the family home on North President Street alongside her brother, the late Robert (Bob) Buck Hamilton.

Mrs. Lake graduated from Central High School when she was 16 and attended Millsaps College. After graduating from Millsaps with honors, she moved to Memphis, TN, where she practiced as a radiological technician and medical technologist at the West Tennessee Cancer Clinic. During this time, she met her husband, Dr. Chester Hamilton Lake, who was in the Navy and attended medical school at the University of Tennessee. They married and moved back to Jackson for Chester to start his practice as an OB/GYN.

Active in supporting the community, Mrs. Lake volunteered as president of the State Medical Auxiliary, and taught bread making classes at St. James Episcopal Church where she was a lifelong member. She also worked as a docent at the Mississippi Governor's Mansion for many years where she was a curator for the Archives of History.

Mrs. Lake was very active in the Fort Rosalie Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution most of her adult life, serving as president and State Regent of the organization.

Dr. and Mrs. Lake had two sons and one daughter, Chester, Robert, and Mary (Tish), who were her heart. Nothing brightened her eyes more or made her smile larger than time with her grandchildren, Andrew and his wife Meg Lake, Tyler and his wife Brittney Lake, Alex and his wife Anna Lake, Andrew and Briggs Edwards, and Trey, Connor, and Lake Chesnutt. She had four wonderful great grandchildren, Haney and Brooklyn Lake, Everett Chesnutt and Hamilton James Lake.

After the passing of Dr. Lake in 1987, she met and married Col. Samuel Ernest Birdsong Jr., a retired Air Force Colonel and lawyer in 1991. He had two daughters, Charlotte B. C. Kingsman and Tricia Edwards, whom she loved dearly. They were happily married for seven years during which they traveled the world and loved staying close to family until his death in 1999.

Mrs. Lake is survived by her sons and daughters, Mary (Tish) and her husband Dwayne Chesnutt, Charlotte B. C. Kingman, Tricia and her husband Bill Edwards, Robert and his wife Lisa Lake, and Chester and his wife Renee Lake, her sister-in-law Virginia Rehfeldt Hamilton, her grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

A funeral service will be held at 1:00pm Monday, January 23, 2023 at St. James Episcopal Church in Jackson.  A private family burial will follow in the Greenwood Cemetery.

ln lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorials in Mrs. Lake's name be made to St. James Episcopal Church in Jackson, MS.