Margaret Elizabeth "Beth" Crocker Pitts

Margaret Elizabeth "Beth" Crocker Pitts, age 86, passed away peacefully with her family and loving caregivers at her side on Friday, July 17, 2026, in Round Rock, Texas.

Beth was born on November 24, 1939, in Henderson, Texas, to Thomas Franklin ("T.F.") Crocker and Vera Callie Anderson Crocker. She was named after her father's grandmother, Margaret Crocker, and her mother's grandmother, Middie Ann "Elizabeth" Liles.Her father was a graduate of Sam Houston State University and Texas A&M University. He served as a vocational agriculture teacher in Rusk County and later as Superintendent of Schools in Smith County. He was also an avid farmer, and Beth loved learning from him. Her mother was an educator and accomplished oil painter, from whom Beth inherited many of her artistic gifts and creative talents.Beth spent most of her childhood in Pasadena, Texas, and graduated from Pasadena High School, where she was a cheerleader, an accomplished seamstress, and a favorite of the annual homecoming court.She attended Lamar State College of Technology (now Lamar University), where she studied Home Economics with a concentration in design. She was a regular honoree of Les Belles Cardinelles, active in community service, and a cheerleader for the football team, where she caught the eye of W.C. "Butch" Pitts.While in college, Beth continued to refine her tailoring skills and was recognized as Best-Dressed Collegiate. She completed the requirements to compete for GLAMOUR magazine's National Best-Dressed College competition. Remarkably, Beth designed and tailored all three of her competition outfits herself, while many other contestants simply styled pre-purchased couture. Thankfully—as her family often reflects—she did not advance to the finals in New York City, where life might have taken a very different path. Instead, after graduation, Beth and Butch married and began building the family that became the joy of her life in Beaumont, Texas.Butch was an entrepreneur in the industrial supply and petroleum services industry, while Beth became a devoted stay-at-home mother and master seamstress. She made beautiful handmade children's clothing to help support the family while remaining deeply involved in her children's schools and church activities at All Saints School and Calder Baptist Church.In 1976, they moved with their three children—Jeffrey, Christopher, and Julie—to Houston, where they built a welcoming home in Ponderosa Forest in Spring, Texas, and became grateful members of Champion Forest Baptist Church.As her children entered grade school, Beth was encouraged by family and friends to pursue her remarkable talent for design professionally. In 1977, she founded an interior design studio and retail showroom, Designers II, Inc., launching a career that would span decades.Beth quickly became one of Houston's respected interior designers, known for her ability to guide every aspect of a project—from conceptual renderings, space planning, and architectural design to upholstery, remodeling, custom framing, and finishing details. Although she had never traveled overseas, she possessed an extraordinary eye for incorporating international design influences that perfectly reflected each client's personality and taste.Everyone knew Beth as stylish, knowledgeable, endlessly creative, and completely trustworthy. No family bookcase escaped Beth's attention whenever she visited. She owned two retail design showrooms in the Champions area including a partnership in Silk Arboretum, designed some of the Houston area's most beautiful homes, and also had the privilege of leading the remodeling of Champions Golf Club.Beth's talents, hospitality, and generous spirit extended far beyond her business. She contributed her time and expertise to American Heart Association events, Northwest Assistance Ministries, National Charity League, and Sugar Plum Cotillion, of which she was a founding member alongside her daughter.Yet perhaps her greatest generosity was reserved for family and friends. She freely donated countless hours decorating dorm rooms, apartments, and homes for her children, their friends, nieces, nephews, cousins, and anyone who needed a little encouragement. On one memorable trip to the University of Oklahoma, she happened to bring along her sewing machine "just in case." After noticing some tired window treatments in a sorority house, she promptly designed, sewed, and installed two complete sets of draperies for the house mother and one of her daughter's sorority sisters.Beth was equally gifted in the kitchen and she opened her home regularly for weekend swim parties, her children's team events, tea parties, charity events, family reunions and generally was the go-to home for hospitality. No one ever left her home hungry, lonely, or uninspired. And all children were loved unconditionally and disciplined equally.In 2002, Beth joyfully entered another cherished season of life as a grandmother to Gabriel Maximus Mount and Mariana Elizabeth Pitts. Around this time, she closed Designers II but continued working as a design consultant for several more years.Following Butch's passing in 2012, Beth continued balancing family and consulting work between Houston and Austin. Eventually, she reunited with an old high school sweetheart, Philip Klyne Wright. They married and moved to Austin, where Beth also spent quality time with her beloved Johnston and Pitts in-laws and cousins, who always welcomed her as a sister. She especially treasured walking her granddaughter to and from school and spending precious time with her family in Austin.After retiring, Beth and Philip moved to Burnet, Texas, in 2016 to enjoy a quieter pace of life. Philip passed away in 2018, after which Beth returned to Austin to be closer to her family.The final years of Beth's life were marked by dementia, but they were also filled with beauty, love, and extraordinary care. Free from the demands of work, she found joy in the outdoors with trees, flowers, birds, butterflies and peaceful walking trails of Brushy Creek. She was surrounded by a constant procession of family members whose love never wavered, as well as devoted caregivers who truly became family.After a week-long bedside vigil shared by her family, Beth passed peacefully with her beloved sister-in-law, Brenda Bowman, holding her hand on the seventh day when by God's grace, she found her rest.Beth is survived by her children, Jeffrey Connell Pitts and his wife, Michelle; Christopher Glen Pitts; and Julie Elizabeth Pitts Mount; and by her treasured grandchildren, Gabriel Maximus Mount and Mariana Elizabeth Pitts.The family extends heartfelt gratitude to small, family-owned personal care homes such as Faith and Loveable Home in Round Rock and to the compassionate caregivers of Comforts of Home Hospice in Austin. Their staff who provided faithful care, kindness, and love was like a second family to Beth and to all who loved her.A memorial funeral liturgy and Christian burial will be held on Saturday, August 22, 2026, at Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery, Grand Chapel, 6900 Lawndale Street, Houston, Texas. The funeral liturgy will be celebrated by The Very Rev. Charles A. Hough IV, Ph.D., Rector and Pastor of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham.The service is open to all who knew and loved Beth—family, friends, clients, colleagues, and neighbors. The funeral liturgy will begin in the Forest Park Grand Chapel at 10:00 a.m. CDT, with interment immediately following. Later that afternoon, family and friends will gather to share stories, celebrate Beth's remarkable life, and enjoy several of her favorite recipes and desserts.“A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men shall know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.” John 13: 34-35In lieu of flowers, the family invites those who wish to honor Beth's memory to make a donation to a favorite charity, church, or Christian mission, or simply to plant a tree or a favorite flowering plant in her memory.