Betty Jean Hubbard Rivers

Obituary For Betty Jean Hubbard Rivers

Betty Jean Hubbard Rivers was a native of Dry Branch, Twiggs County, Georgia. After earning her diploma from Jeffersonville High School in 1969, she attended The Fort Valley State College, where she completed a Bachelor of Science in business education in 1973. With her degree in hand, she began her professional career by working from 1973-1975 as a secretary in the office of Dr. Benjamin L. Perry, Jr., the sixth president of Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University in Tallahassee.

In 1975, the City of Tallahassee hired Rivers to serve as secretary to the director of the Employment Opportunity Office. Florida State University conferred a Master of Arts in vocational education to her that same year. Four years later, in 1979, she married Dr. Larry Eugene Rivers, a fellow graduate of The Fort Valley State College whom she had originally met in college.

Rivers spent 30 years with the City of Tallahassee. At the Department of Community Improvement, she served as Administrative Supervisor before being promoted to Human Services Administrator and eventually the Interim Director. In 2000, the Florida Community Development Association awarded her its James E. Huger Distinguished Service Award. Rivers finished her career with the City of Tallahassee in 2006 as Business Services Manager of the Tallahassee Regional Airport, which is now the Tallahassee International Airport. Her retirement coincided with the University System of Georgia Board of Regents’ decision to appoint her husband to serve as The Fort Valley State University’s eighth president.

For the next seven years, from 2006-2013, First Lady Betty H. Rivers worked at President Larry E. Rivers’ side to advance The Fort Valley State University’s mission locally and nationally. In 2014, she completed a book titled "Ladies First, Please!: Celebrating First ladies who served with principals and presidents in the Valley 1895-2013." It featured biographical essays about the First Ladies who served The Fort Valley State University and its institutional predecessors.

Throughout her career with the City of Tallahassee, Rivers volunteered for a number of local organizations. For 20 years, she served as a meal deliverer for Meals on Wheels. She also sat on the Board of Directors of the Tallahassee/Leon County Convention and Visitors Bureau. Additionally, she was a member of the Capital City Chamber of Commerce. Furthermore, she mentored students at Caroline Brevard Elementary School and Bellevue Middle School.

After she and her husband returned to Tallahassee in 2013, she resumed her volunteer work with two institutions that were very close to her heart: her spiritual home, Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, and her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. For Bethel, she regularly coordinated the annual Christmas Program, which featured hymn selections, recitations of scripture, and plays by the children of the church. She also served on the Women’s History Month Program Committee for the congregation’s Bethel Christian Academy. For the Delta Kappa Omega (DKO) Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., she served as the committee chair of the DKO Reading and Math Tutorial Program, an initiative the chapter launched in 1981 to help local grade school students. She also helped coordinate DKO’s Homework Assistance Program, Summer Camps, and Spring Break Camps for school children in Leon County. Additionally, Rivers regularly played a leading role in preparing DKO’s scrapbook submissions for the South Atlantic Regional Conference’s annual A. Cathryn Reading Award competition.

Each year, Rivers looked forward to attending the City of Tallahassee’s annual Retiree Luncheon. She enjoyed seeing other former employees and reminiscing with them about their work to create a better quality of life for local residents.

With her husband, Rivers was a proud parent of two sons: Dr. Larry Omar Rivers, a professor of history at the University of West Georgia; and Attorney Linjé Eugene Rivers, founder and principal of the Rivers Legal Group.

She was preceded in her sunset by her father, Willie James Hubbard; mother, Annie Mae Smith Hubbard; sister, Rose Marie Hubbard, and brother, Bennie Lee Hubbard. She is survived by her husband, Larry Eugene Rivers; her sons Larry Omar Rivers and Linjé Eugene Rivers; her sisters Willie Mae Hubbard, Delores Hubbard Brooks, Bernice Hubbard Rembert, and Regina Hubbard; and her sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law. Rivers is also survived by her many nieces and nephews, as well as her many grandnieces and grandnephews.

A Celebration of Life honoring Mrs. Betty H. Rivers will be 11 AM, Friday, August 28, 2026, at Bethel M.B. Church, with burial at Oakland Cemetery. On Thursday, August 27, 2026, the Ivy Beyond the Wall Service will be from 6-6:30p.m. followed a wake from 6:30 to 7pm

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations please be made to the Larry E. and Betty H. Rivers Scholarship Endowment at The Fort Valley State University.

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