Fort Worth icon and media figure Betty Bob Buckley passed away peacefully on June 27, 2025; she was 99 years old.
Buckley was a pioneering journalist and co-founder of the annual scholarship fundraiser The Celebrity Breakfast. She also served as director of public relations for Casa Mañana Theatre in Fort Worth’s Cultural District. She was also the mother of two showbiz bright lights: actress Betty Lynn Buckley and director Norman Buckley.
She was born Betty Bob Diltz on November 1, 1925, in Tonkawa, Oklahoma, but her family moved shortly after her birth to West Texas. She loved singing and dancing as a child and teenager, and performed locally throughout her high school years. But her real love was writing. She began her journalism career on The Big Spring Herald when she was 16 and had her first front-page story, on D-Day, when she was 18, interviewing local citizens about their response to the invasion.
She subsequently worked at newspapers in every city in which she lived — including the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, the Brookings Register in Brookings, South Dakota, the Manhattan Mercury Chronicle in Kansas, the Fort Worth Press, the Moroccan Courier in Casablanca, Morocco, and the Limestone Limelite in Maine.
She met her husband, Ernest Lynn Buckley, in 1944 when he was stationed at the air base in Big Spring before he went overseas during World War II. They married in 1946 and a year later, had their first child, Betty Lynn Buckley (born 1947). After the war, her husband finished his civil engineering education and was stationed at Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth. While they were there, she edited The Flying Hens, a magazine for the Air Force wives of the Eighth Air Force, covering six bases around the country. At the same time she wrote a column for the Fort Worth Press called “Carswell Conversations.”
The couple had twin sons, Patrick and Michael, in 1950. (Both sons would grow up to become civil engineers like their father.) From 1952 to 1954, the young family lived in Sidi Slimane, Morocco, where Betty Bob wrote a weekly column and special features for The Moroccan Courier, the only American newspaper on the continent of Africa.
They returned to the States in 1954 and were briefly stationed in Limestone, Maine, where their fourth child, television director Norman Buckley, was born in 1955. Shortly after Norman’s birth, her husband retired from the Air Force. They moved back to Texas and settled on the west side of Fort Worth.
A younger Betty Bob Buckley who was always an animal lover.Courtesy of Norman Buckley
In 1958, Betty Bob had the idea for the Celebrity Breakfast, to raise money for journalism scholarships; it became a Fort Worth tradition every year until 1995. Famous guests — including Barbara Walters, Ladybird Johnson, and “Dear Abby” — were invited each year to be interviewed by Betty Bob’s close friend, NBC television personality Bobbie Wygant. Betty Bob and Bobbie remained lifelong friends and were frequently referred to in their later years as “The Party Girls.” They attended almost every theater opening night and many other arts events together well into their 90s, holding court during opening night receptions and staying later than most guests half their ages.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, Betty Bob went to work for the Casa Mañana Theatre, and also returned to complete her unfinished college degree (she had previously left school when she became pregnant with her first child) and graduated with her journalism degree in 1983, though she had already been working as a professional journalist for 40 years.
In late 1983, Betty Bob and Ernest moved to Brookings, South Dakota, where her husband became dean of engineering at South Dakota State University (and then later economic advisor to Governor George Mickelson.) While there she created an organization for the Engineers’ Wives. When Ernest passed away in 1989, Betty Bob published a book of her husband’s poetry called “Write Me a Poem, Ernie,” in order to raise money for engineering scholarships at SDSU. The endowment has grown and still produces scholarships each year.
Betty Bob returned to Fort Worth in 1990, into the home that she would live in for the rest of her life. She was active in many civic organizations, serving on the boards of Casa Mañana, The Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts, and Friends of the Library at the University of Texas at Arlington, among others. She cared for both her mother and her sister at her home in the final years of their lives.
She loved her children and was proud of their accomplishments: her daughter Betty Lynn became a Tony-award winning actress (in the musical Cats) and has starred in many films and television shows. Her twin sons Michael and Patrick had successful careers as civil engineers. Her son Norman is a successful and prolific television director. She remained close to all of them and talked to them almost daily.
She was a woman of deep faith and was a member of Ridglea United Methodist Church, and then Arborlawn United Methodist Church. She loved traveling, reading, and all manner of the arts. She was an animal lover (she always had dogs and cats) and especially doted on her rescue dog Taz in her final years. She never lost her mental acuity and was reading the newspaper every morning, cover to cover, until the last weeks of her life. She was optimistic, curious, and kind. Her life was one of immense joy, in spite of the inevitable losses of loved ones and occasional setbacks — she was always accepting and remarkable in her resilience. She woke up every day with gratitude and always told her family, “It’s all right. I love you and we continue.”
She was cared for in her final years by Esther Duty, Doris Wheaton, Robin Powell (all of whom helped care for Betty Bob’s mother and sister as well), and Carolyn Teal.
Betty Bob is preceded in death by Ernest Lynn Buckley, her husband of 43 years; her parents Clinton and Mary Diltz; her sister Mary Ruth Blankenship; her brother Joseph Diltz; her son Michael Jay Buckley; her son-in-law Davyd Whaley; as well as many of her long-time friends and colleagues. She is survived by her daughter Betty Lynn Buckley; her son Patrick Joe Buckley; her daughter-in-law Dianne Buckley; her daughter-in-law Marjory Buckley; her son Norman Lee Buckley; her granddaughter Erin Buckley and spouse Heather Greeley and their daughter Reece Clementine; her granddaughter Laura Frost; her grandson Jared Hunt; her great granddaughter Amber McDonald; and other great great grandchildren.
A memorial service is planned for her centennial birthday, November 1. Her family also plans to set up a scholarship fund in her name, with details to come.