It has sense that Mudcat would not have an obituary thread for Betty Carter.
After all, the year she died was 1998, and Mudcat was still little better than a tadpole, or something . . .

and why focus on her death (pancreatic cancer, progressed very quickly)
when there is so much to celebrate and discover about her career and her work?

Her birthname is said to have been Lillie Mae Jones. Her African-American family lived in Michigan, by one account they had yet to move to Detroit when she was born;
however, her parents were devout, and her father a musician,
so he found work in the music ministry of a church in the greater Detroit area.   

And in that milieu was she raised.
Little is spoken about her family of origin,
and it seems that that is a mutual understanding between
the artist we know as Betty Carter, and her relatives;
she left home early and went her own way,
and when interviewed,
she most often commented that polite distance was the routine between her and her blood relatives. She would pretty much leave the subject there.

It's worth noting that Betty Carter was equally discreet
about the family of her adult years.
Her marriage did not last all that long, but she was quiet about it.
And the two sons who were the issue of that marriage,
as far as I can work out, she raised them as a single/divorced mother.
She was proud of them but kept her relationship with them private.

Hers was not an easy career.
At one point, as a middle-aged musician, she formed her own record company, "Bet-Car," because who else would record her?
Something like that ... not that simple, of course, because her reputation as a musician was solid, and the respect from her peers equally so. But the business, and the artist that she was, were never at ease with each other.

To think that it is nearly twenty years since she died.
At least one of her two grown sons is now
the go-to person regarding Bet-Car recordings, legalities, royalties, and so on.

Let's introduce Betty Carter's singing,
for those who are new to her, with this studio recording
when her voice was still youthful and had its full range.

"Don't Weep for the Lady"