OBITUARY: Mary Elizabeth “Beth” Walkup Anderson

Mary Elizabeth “Beth” Walkup Anderson left this world and went to Heaven on April 14, 2026.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Billy Walkup (Mackie) and Elizabeth Jackson Cunningham (Dudley); brother, Banford Raye Mitchell, Sr., and sister, Nancy Fox.

She is survived by her husband, Michael Anderson; children: Mary Elizabeth “Bitsy” Rawlings (and her husband, Bill), Terri Lagunas (and her husband, Noel,) and Robert Buckley; grandchildren: Stephen Robillard, Mathew Bryan Robillard, Emma Buckley and Abigail Buckley; three brothers: Bill Mitchell, Gene Cunningham and Jeff Walkup; and sister, Jane Ellen Cunningham. She was well loved by several nieces, nephews, and cousins, in-laws, outlaws, friends, family and pretty much everybody she met.

Beth was a 1962 graduate of Central High School in Nashville where she was a cheerleader and a majorette in the marching band and played flute in the concert band during the off-season. She spent a large part of her life in the Nashville area, working as an Executive Assistant and loved serving her community in small ways. She was a former president of the Woodbine Jaycettes and a former girls softball coach in Crieve Hall and Antioch community leagues. She served as a Girl Scout Leader and a room mom, often chaperoned her kids’ school field trips and hung out as a band mom/orchestra mom/football mom/wrestling mom and/or “whatever activity her kids got into” mom. Not too unlike her step-dad, Dudley, a longtime Vanderbilt sports fan, Beth could also be heard cheering on “her” ‘Dores in just about every sport imaginable. Beth loved bowling and was quite good at it, too. She has several trophies for tournament wins back in the day. Her biggest joy, however, was entertaining her grandchildren whom she adored.

In the early 1990’s, Beth moved with her husband, Mike, to Portland, Tennessee, where she enjoyed drinking a Pepsi while watching the deer, wild turkeys, coyotes and doting on the neighbor’s outdoor cats who made their way over to visit her daily in her backyard.

Beth loved Jesus. She was saved and baptized at a little Baptist church in Woodbine many years ago. While we are all still touched by the joy she brought to so many, and we know that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, we still grieve our loss of the sunshine she was here but we do not grieve as those without hope.

Funeral services will be held Monday, April 20, 2026, at Woodbine Funeral Home, Hickory Chapel in Nashville. A private viewing for the family will take place at 10:00 am. Public visitation will begin at 11:00 am. The funeral service will begin at 1:00 pm with a graveside service to follow at Woodlawn Memorial Gardens.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that memorial gifts be made to Alive Hospice, The American Cancer Society or the charity of your own choosing.

For more obituaries visit our obituaries page.

This obituary was published by Woodbine Funeral Home – Hickory Chapel.

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