"I was on my way," she recalled in a 1986 interview with The State newspaper. "New York was the Mecca for theater. I thought it was the promised land. How my parents let me go, I'll never know."

The oldest of four children and the only daughter, Ackerman Jaffe grew up in Williston, where her father, Clarence Ackerman, was school superintendent and her younger brothers idolized her.

"She was completely open - without guile. She persisted in seeing the good in people," said her brother Robert Ackerman, who lives in Lexington.

She took classes and quickly landed a role in Moliere's "Tartuffe," but before the play opened, the lead actor left. She and another actor were sent to recruit a replacement, Sam Jaffe.

She was smitten. "My husband told me later, 'You came as bait you know,'" she told an interviewer.

The couple married in 1956 and were together until his death in 1984. They also performed together frequently, including on the popular 1960s television show, "Ben Casey."

Sam Jaffe, a New York actor who had been blacklisted in Hollywood in the 1950s, auditioned for the role of Dr. Zorba. But he didn't drive and Bettye said she would chauffeur him in L.A.

When she showed up with him on the first day, the director had her read for the part of nurse Maggie Graham.

Onstage, the couple appeared in "The Merchant of Venice" and in an adaptation of the story of Job. Their last joint TV performance was on "The Love Boat."

Ackerman Jaffe also appeared on a number of television series in the 1950s through the '80s, from "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" to "Perry Mason" and "The Waltons."

She began a career as an artist in the early 1960s - drawing a much-praised picture of her husband. The subject seemed an easy choice as she recalled being on the set of a John Wayne movie and hearing the actor say to Sam, "You know, you're the cutest man I ever saw."

Ackerman Jaffe took classes and began painting and sculpting in earnest by the mid 1960s. Her work was exhibited in New York, Los Angeles and Columbia.

When Ackerman Jaffe gave the Columbia College commencement address in 1986, she donated one of her paintings, a floral monotype, to the school in memory of a favorite teacher, Mary Lou Kramer.

Ackerman Jaffe sold her Beverly Hills home in 1998 and moved back to Columbia to be near family and friends. Shortly after returning, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

"She had a great life. It was not a tragic death at all," Bob Ackerman said. "You know she played Portia in Shakespeare's 'Merchant of Venice.' And I'm going to read Portia's first line in the play for Bettye's eulogy: "By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this great world."