How you will be remembered depends on how you lived. Here’s how friends and family remember Betsy Bingham Klein ’53: With love for everyone.

Betsy loved her friends and family from Randolph County, N.C., and was always inviting them to spend a week with her at her brownstone in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of New York City.

Nephew Ray White was one of them. “When you went up,” says Ray, “You were wasting your time trying to pay for anything. Betsy always took us to the movies, to dinner and she insisted on picking up the check.”

Betsy loved The New York Times.

Brooks Adams, a close friend who lived with Betsy and her husband, artist David Klein, in New York for a time, says the newspaper was as much a part of her morning routine as breakfast and coffee.

“Couldn’t get enough of the Times,” says Brooks. “She’d read it from front to back and a few hours later pick it up again.”

She loved politics and cats, too.

When you showed up for one of the Kleins’ renowned parties, you knew the evening’s conversation would be heavy on whatever was going on in Albany, N.Y., or Washington, D.C. You also knew there would be plenty of Betsy’s cats mingling around your feet.

“Really, there wasn’t much Betsy didn’t love,” says Brooks. “She didn’t just tell you she loved you, she showed you.”

That love extended to Guilford College, where Betsy earned a degree in Psychology. And while she would tell anyone who asked (or didn’t) how much the College meant to her, she also showed that love several years before she died in January.

Betsy gifted the College that helped propel her life and career a $750,000 annuity. Family members smile approvingly when the gift is brought up. “Did my aunt talk about Guilford College much?” asks Ray. “When did she not talk about Guilford? You could tell the friends, the relationships and education she made there meant so much to her.”

After graduating from Guilford, Betsy went on to study theater at Boston University. She moved to New York and performed in some off-Broadway productions including the comic opera “Don Pasquale.”

Betsy also worked in the garment industry of New York. She sold clothes to high-end stores like Nieman Marcus and worked closely with Roy Halston Frowick (known mononymously as Halston, one of America’s top fashion designers). Ray says Betsy’s Brooklyn closets were filled with Halston dresses but not for long. “She was always giving them to friends or family members,” he says.

Betsy’s husband David was an artist who created iconic TWA travel posters highlighting the airline's various destinations. The Kleins frequently visited those far-flung destinations and routinely spent their summers in Southern France.

After David died in 2005, Betsy began thinking about returning to North Carolina. She lived at Friends Homes across the street from the College and enjoyed reconnecting with classmates and friends.

Acting President Jean Bordewich is thankful for Betsy's generosity. “Betsy's gift is another example of grateful Guilfordians giving back to the College," says Jean. "Her generosity will continue to shape the Guilford experience for generations to come."

A charitable gift annuity helps you support Guilford College and feel confident that you have dependable income in your retirement years, says Rick Lancaster ’88, Director of Development - Major Gifts.  

“It’s a win-win for both Guilford and our donors,” says Rick. “For the College, a charitable gift annuity offers meaningful support and makes a lasting impact. For our donors, annuities help support the College's mission, offer potential tax benefits and provide fixed income for life.”  

Want to learn more about how you can support the College through a Charitable Gift Annuity? Contact Rick by email or call him at 336-316-2619.

Want to learn more about how you can support the College through a Charitable Gift Annuity? Email Rick or call him at 336-316-2619.