Betty Chabot is the author of more than 2,500 poems and a number of short stories. Her writings have appeared in Canadian newspapers, magazines, and in published collections of Nova Scotia authors. She was born in Montreal, Quebec on April 19, 1910, youngest of four children of George Lewis Chabot and Bertha (Harrison) Chabot. Much of her childhood was lived in Northern Ontario. In her mid-teens the family moved to Baltimore, Maryland where she completed high school and pursued professional studies in art. She married, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Betty Lee. Sadly, Betty Lee died of bronchial pneumonia before reaching the age of two. Betty Chabot returned to Montreal in 1933 and married for a second time in 1937. In 1941, with her husband David and two small children, she moved to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. It was here that her husband’s skills in ship building and repair were required in the war effort then underway. In 1966 they purchased a former ship builder’s home in Maitland, Hants County and anticipated enjoying retirement together for many years. Instead, the unexpected death of her husband the following year meant a return to professional life. Betty resumed her writing career, securing a position as a columnist with the Truro Daily News and with the Hants Journal of Windsor. In the mid-1980’s she returned to Dartmouth. She remained active writing poetry to the end of her life. Just several hours before suffering a fatal stroke she recited several of her poems at a meeting of the Poetry Society of Nova Scotia for
which she had earlier served as President. Betty Chabot’s inspirational spirit departed on its eternal journey February 29, 1996. Her remains are interred in the family’s burial plot in Oak Island Cemetery, Maitland, Nova Scotia. Gone but never forgotten!