Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Betty Bell: Former Blairgowrie shop owner dies aged 89

Betty Bell.

Betty Bell, former joint proprietor of The Two Bells hardware shop in Blairgowrie, has died aged 89.

She ran the shop with her husband Bruce from 1982 and their retiral in 2002.

Betty had previously had a successful career in management at the United States military base at RAF Edzell.

She was born in Perth in 1932 to John Macfarlane, a painter and decorator, and his wife Sarah, a housewife.

After she left school, she began work in a shop before moving on to a sales position with a wholesaler in the city.

The Two Bells, Blairgowrie.
The Two Bells, Blairgowrie.

During the 1950s she met her future husband, PE teacher Ronan Hutchison, and the couple married at St Ninian’s Cathedral in Perth 1956.

The couple had three children: Sarah, Stephen and Frank.

Ronan was teaching in Perth but was offered a job at the private Rannoch School in Highland Perthshire.

New start

The family spent several years living in a house near the school but Betty never took to the isolation so the family relocated to Rossie School, near Montrose, where Ronan started teaching.

In 1969, he died and Betty, who was 36 at the time, was left to bring up three children on her own.

She secured a temporary job at RAF Edzell, and was kept on full time. She went on to manage the base’s offices, navy exchange club, supermarket, shops and hairdresser.

Retail career

In 1975, Betty married Bruce Bell and, seven years, later they bought the Blairgowrie hardware shop and renamed it as The Two Bells.

They became a fixture in the town until their retiral in 2002.

The shop was taken on by John and Maureen Robb after their retiral and is now owned by Tony Douglas who had been employed by Betty and Bruce under the Youth Training Scheme in 1985.

In retirement, Betty, who lived in Rattray, was a member of Blairgowrie Bowling Club and enjoyed socialising and walking.

You can read the family’s announcement here.