Obituary of Elizabeth Ann Raycroft
Elizabeth “Betsy” Ann (Prior) Raycroft died peacefully on January 16, 2026. She was 93. Betsy was born on April 18, 1932, to Alice and Willard Prior of Oneida, New York.
Post-Depression America in the 1930s was a challenging time to grow up, but Betsy’s father was a teacher and principal at the middle school. That security and focus on education allowed Betsy and her beloved older brother Bill to thrive during their young lives.
At Oneida High School, Betsy, or “Beets” as she was known to friends, was active and, by any measure, popular. She was part of the drama club, sang with the chorus, played in the school band, was a member of all prom and dance committees, and most importantly, head cheerleader for the men’s varsity football and basketball teams.
Outside of school, Betsy routinely attended summer camps in the neighboring Adirondacks. She loved the camaraderie and the carefree days of swimming, canoeing, and singing around campfires. Summer camps led to summer jobs. Betsy worked at the Lake View Lodge Resort on Big Moose Lake in the Adirondacks, water skiing and sunning on days off. One summer, her classic good looks earned her the enviable title of Miss Big Moose Lake.
After high school, Betsy headed off to college at nearby Syracuse University, where she studied Home Economics, joined the Alpha Phi sorority, and made lifelong friends. The most significant person she met was John (Jack) Raycroft at a fraternity party. Rumor has it that she was hamming it up, singing and strumming a ukulele, and when spotted by Jack, he was smitten. Jack was not the only one on campus pursuing Betsy, but eventually his charm and admiration won out, and after graduation they were married on November 24, 1956, in Syracuse, New York.
During the early years of marriage, Betsy and Jack moved frequently throughout New York State and Connecticut. During this time, Betsy raised their four children while Jack attended medical school and started his medical practice. Her steady presence and devotion provided the foundation for the family during those demanding years. Eventually, they discovered a house in Cotton Hollow, South Glastonbury, Connecticut, where they would put down lasting roots.
The house in “The Hollow” was surrounded by the ruins of an 1820s cotton mill. Betsy and Jack soon went about expanding and transforming the building, which was originally the mill’s office, into a unique and welcoming home. Betsy had a gift for decorating and design, filling the house with antiques. They both loved working in the yard, slowly building perennial flowering gardens with standout roses and rhododendrons.
Betsy and Jack raised their four children in that house, welcomed and entertained many friends, and celebrated the arrival of spouses and grandchildren to the family. The house was also a peaceful retreat where you could fish and swim in the brook that ran past the front yard or track the many birds that also called the Hollow home. Each, in their own way, their children learned to respect and appreciate nature while living there, and the house served as an anchor for the family for 50 years.
After the children left for college, Betsy returned to school, earning her master’s degree in social work from the University of Hartford. In later years, she also took up painting, finding joy and creative expression through her art.
Betsy was at her best when spending time with family and friends, and she was a devoted companion to Jack. Jack was an enthusiastic road warrior, with every visit or vacation accomplished behind the wheel of a station wagon or Suburban. No distance was too far: Sanibel Island, Chincoteague, the Outer Banks, Maine, colleges in Ohio, New York, and Boston. With Betsy in the front seat next to him and one of their beloved cairn terriers on her lap, the distance didn’t matter.
The destination they drove to most was their summer camp on Third Lake in Old Forge, New York. Not far from her hometown of Oneida and Syracuse University, it was a place where they could both fully relax and enjoy the company of others. For many years, the goal for the two of them was to get back up to “camp,” to spend more time on the dock, perhaps with an Old Fashioned in hand, watching the world boat by, surrounded by family and friends, while they looked on together.
Betsy was predeceased by her devoted and loving husband of 66 years, Jack, who passed in 2022, and her beloved older brother Willard “Bill” Prior, who passed in 2005.
She will be greatly missed by her children: John Raycroft and his wife, Laurie Souza Raycroft, of Swampscott, Massachusetts, and their children, Harrison, Oliver, and Jack; Kathleen Raycroft-Meyer and her husband, Peter Meyer, of Bristol, Vermont, and their children, Emma and her husband, Tyler; Willard and his wife, Kennady; and Charles; Theodore Raycroft and his wife, Audrey Woodham Raycroft, of Sherborn, Massachusetts, and their children, M. Eleanor and Cameron; and Timothy Raycroft and his wife, Noelle Cocoros, of Roslindale, Massachusetts.
The family wishes to extend its thanks to the staff at Elizabeth Seton Residence in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and all who cared for our mother in her final years.
In the spring, the family will hold a small graveside service and a celebration of life for Betsy in Glastonbury, Connecticut.