Betty Louise Dunn, the matriarch of a prominent real estate development family in South Florida, died in Miami on Jan. 9. She was 90 years old.
Betty Dunn was married for 45 years to Lowell Dunn until his passing from lung cancer on Nov. 13, 2006, at age 72.
She was president and chief executive officer of the Lowell Dunn Companies.
“Mom was always an equal partner with dad, in both life and in the building of all of the Dunn family developments and projects," their son, Lowell Dunn II, said through family friend Michael Pizzi.
She also founded the Lowell S. and Betty L. Dunn Family Foundation that supported St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the University of Miami Health System and Baptist Health of South Florida, the family said in an obituary provided by Pizzi.
In Miami Lakes, cattle graze on land the company owns near Northwest 87th Avenue.
Stuart Wyllie, president and chief executive officer of The Graham Companies which developed the Town of Miami Lakes, said his family was thinking of the Dunns during their time of mourning.
"Betty was a unique individual and will be missed by those that knew her," Wyllie said. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Dunn family.”
The Dunn family said Betty Dunn’s Christian faith was important to her. The couple also cherished their family and their beagles, their obituaries said.
Betty Dunn had five children: Lowell Dunn II (and his wife Joella Dunn); Cynthia Dunn Clohessy; Greta Lynn Dunn Delgado (and her husband Jorge Delgado); Loretta “Susi” Dunn-Moorehead (and her husband Roy Moorhead) and Lizbeth Dunn Arencibia and (her husband Rene Arencibia).
Fourteen grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren also survive her.
There will be two services:
On Wednesday, Jan. 15 at noon at Mount Pisgah Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ga., and on Saturday, Jan. 18 at 11 a.m. at Grace Lutheran Church, 254 Curtiss Parkway, Miami Springs.
In lieu of flowers the family asked that friends celebrate her life by spending time with loved ones and helping local organizations in need.