TULSA, Okla. \u2014 The owner of a beloved Tulsa restaurant known for its British atmosphere died Saturday, Nov. 14, the same day the pub closed its doors for the final time.<\/p>\n
The White Lion closed Saturday after serving the Tulsa community for 27 years.<\/p>\n
Gertrude Elizabeth “Betty” Southard, 93, died peacefully following a short illness, according to an announcement from her family and the staff of The White Lion Pub.<\/p>\n
In a statement posted to the pub’s Facebook page, her death and the restaurant’s closing on the same day were described as an extraordinary coincidence.<\/p>\n
“In the most incredible and beautiful way, Betty said goodbye to the mortal world on the very same day Tulsa said goodbye to The White Lion,” the post said.<\/p>\n
Born in Liverpool, England, in 1933, Southard moved to Tulsa in 1957 with her husband, Kenneth, who served in the U.S. Air Force.<\/p>\n
She operated several businesses in Tulsa, before becoming the owner and driving force behind The White Lion, which she operated for 27 years.<\/p>\n
The post said Southard would have been especially happy to see the crowds that came to say goodbye to the restaurant.<\/p>\n
“There is nothing Betty would have loved more than seeing a line of eager patrons stretching down the street,” the post said.<\/p>\n
The family and staff expressed gratitude for the community’s support and said Southard’s joy, spirit and passion for life would continue to inspire those who knew her.<\/p>\n
Services at Boston Avenue Methodist Church are pending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TULSA, Okla. \u2014 The owner of a beloved Tulsa restaurant known for its British atmosphere died Saturday, Nov. 14, the same day the pub closed its doors for the final time. The White Lion closed Saturday after serving the Tulsa community for 27 years. Gertrude Elizabeth “Betty” Southard, 93, died peacefully following a short illness,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7,8],"class_list":["post-57946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-restaurants","tag-restaurant","tag-restaurants"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117622548977935993","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}