Betty Boyd Morgan was born on April 23rd, 1921 in Terrell, Texas and grew up attending public schools there. She graduated in 1937 and went on to college, first attending Texas Military College in Terrell, then the University of Texas at Austin where she graduated in 1941 with a BA in Chemistry. She continued her education in graduate school at UT, completing her Masters Degree in Chemistry in 1943.
While in graduate school she fell in love with her future husband, Leon Owen (Tom) Morgan, and they married on December 27th, 1942.
After completing their Masters Degrees in 1943, Betty and Tom moved to Chicago where they worked on the Manhattan Project at the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago (the famous Met Lab). Following the war, they moved to Berkeley, California, where Tom completed his PhD degree in Chemistry, working with Nobel Laureate and lifelong friend, Glenn Seaborg. They returned to Austin in 1947 when Tom joined the chemistry faculty to begin his long career at The University of Texas.
They had four children together, all born and raised in Austin: Joe, Boyd, Robert and Mary Kay.
After the children were old enough to be in school, Betty returned to the University of Texas where she obtained a teaching certificate from UT’s School of Library Science. She then began a long, satisfying career as a librarian in the Austin Public School system
She passed away on Wednesday, November 13th, 2013 at the age of 92.