City of Oaks Funeral Home & Cremation

Obituary
Betty Lyles

Raleigh, North Carolina

Age 89.
Died 01/20/2025.

Betty Lyles
I’d like to tell you about our mother. She deserves this. According to her wishes, no services are planned at this time. She donated her body to the Duke Anatomical Gifts Program. We are proud of that.

Mama had a documented genius IQ - and she could do practically anything. What a multi talented girl. She rebuilt an engine on a 1957 Chevy with our granddaddy. She built our beach house at Ocean Isle with her dad (Pop to us) and our father. It had a tongue and groove hardwood floor, plus the same for the walls and the ceiling. She drew and painted incredibly well. We have some of her pieces in our homes. She cooked and baked like you might read about. Freshly cooked breakfast and dinner were served for our family every single day, accompanied by vitamins to make us strong and healthy. She sewed all of our cheerleading outfits and even a prom gown for me. Friends of ours were given a welcome home when they were in need of a safe and loving environment My cousin Mike’s parents both died when he was 14. Mama and Daddy took him in as part of our family. Our friends were always welcome and wanted. (Many of you are reading this and saying, “that’s me!”). She was a very good mother who raised us to be practical, rational and reasonable. She loved us very much and we knew it.

Her brain was amazing and it was almost scary how intelligent she was. Mama knew the correct answer to just about every question we ever asked her. Rarely did she not respond correctly to every single Jeopardy challenge. Her grammar and her manners were impeccable. She possessed a wicked sense of humor if you were smart enough to catch on. She played several instruments- guitar, piano, ocarina, harmonica, accordion, ukulele…. She played trumpet with the high school marching band when she was in fourth grade. She was extraordinarily talented at piano from a very young age. She was very involved with community theater and was a talented actress and loved creating truly realistic sets and props. She also had a strong command of the Spanish language.

Our mother grew up in Fairmont, NC and attended Duke University at the age of 17. She graduated at 20. She was born in 1935, so it was rather rare for a female to be accepted to Duke in those times. After that, she married our father, who was a “famous” basketball star at the old Wake Forest University. (Billy Lyles). They were united in marriage on the steps to the house of Daddy’s college basketball coach, Bones McKinney. (Boylan Avenue in old Raleigh.) She then commenced a career as a school teacher, as women often did back in those days, and as her mother had done before her. Several years later, just when they had about given up on conceiving a child and were considering adoption, Catherine was born - and then they moved to Richmond County. There they eventually built their home in a beautiful neighborhood with rolling hills and great schools within walking distance. We had a wonderful childhood thanks to our parents. Then our brother Murray was born, and sixteen months after that, baby Laura (myself) was born - eight plus years after Catherine.

When Daddy died in 2006 after many years of declining health and suffering from severe rheumatoid arthritis, our mother bravely uprooted from Rockingham. She bought a house across the street from my sister in the big city of Raleigh. That must have taken a lot of courage for a lady of her generation. She was bold and fearless and tried to teach us to be the same.

We are thankful to have been by her side when she took that last breath just as she was with us when we took our first. She was our very best friend and our biggest champion. There is nothing in the world like the bond between a mother and her daughters.

Rest in peace, our dearly beloved Lizard. We will love you fiercely to eternity and beyond.

For additional information or for service details, please reach out to the family directly.


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City of Oaks Cremation and Funeral Home is a full-service funeral home in Raleigh, serving all of North Carolina and beyond. We provide an alternative to costly funeral homes and every day we help families in Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and all over North Carolina make simple, affordable funeral arrangements.

Simply having to reach out to a funeral home can feel overwhelming. Our goal is to simplify the entire funeral home experience and make the process as easy as possible. We hope to eliminate any unnecessary surprises by publishing our total cost and the services we provide directly on our website. All of our obituaries are provided free of charge as a way to help families celebrate and commemorate the lives of their loved ones.

Our Promise

Apples to Apples

Just like all other licensed funeral homes in North Carolina, City of Oaks Cremation, LLC is regulated by the NC Board of Funeral Service.


The same laws that apply to the big corporate funeral homes also apply to the modest independently owned firms like ours. All crematories in North Carolina, regardless of who owns them, are inspected annually by the state and must adhere to the same rules and laws.

Genuine Care

We're committed to providing families within our community unsurpassed service before, during and after the time of loss.


Our staff will provide clear communication to your family through each step as we move forward from the original phone call notifying us of a death to the time we deliver the urn back to your family. We will treat your family with the utmost respect, as we honor the wishes of your loved one.


We promise to make this process affordable and as endurable as possible.

State Wide

Our Funeral Home is located in Wake County NC; however, we provide our services to families throughout the entire State.


Unlike other funeral homes, we don't charge an additional mileage fee. Regardless of what county you live in, we can help your family with making simple, affordable funeral arrangements. From Asheville to Wilmington, we're proud to help families statewide.

Our Services

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Direct Cremation

$1196.75

Nobody likes surprise costs added in at the last minute. We guarantee you will not find any hidden charges here. We include everything you need for a simple or direct cremation. Simple, affordable and reliable. We have not changed the cost of our direct cremation service since we opened City of Oaks in 2012.

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Cremation with Solidified Remains

$2875.66

We offer the option of choosing how you receive your loved ones remains. Selecting our Direct Cremation with Solidified Remains option is a beautiful way to transform cremated remains into 40-60 “stones” that you can hold.

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Cremation with Visitation

$1917.84

City of Oaks Funeral Home and Cremation provides an affordable cremation option with onsite visitation. Nobody likes surprise costs added in at the last minute. We guarantee you will not find any hidden charges here. Simple, affordable and reliable.

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Immediate Burial

$2497.50

An immediate burial has the same end result as a traditional burial; however, we have eliminated the extra (sometimes unnecessary) services prior to getting to the cemetery. Not everyone wants an open casket for viewing or a limousine for the family. Despite the term immediate, we can move as fast as you need or as slow as you like. This option simply allows you to save money by eliminating some of the fancy extras at the funeral home.

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Traditional Funeral

$6081.48

We offer the same traditional funeral services as the big corporately owned funeral homes in the area; however, we cost about half the amount. You might consider a traditional funeral service if your family is looking for an open casket visitation, a traditional church service or a funeral service in the funeral home's chapel. A traditional funeral service can be altered to fit the needs of your family.

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Green Burial

$3033.75

This establishment is one of a select number of funeral homes who meet the criteria for providing green funeral service by the Green Burial Council; a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization working to encourage environmentally sustainability in the field of funeral service. Our Green options allow for a funeral to take place without the use of toxic and non-biodegradable materials/chemicals.

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Aquamation

$2640.59

As an alternative to traditional cremation, City of Oaks Funeral Home also offers Aquamation. The Aquamation process, often referred to as alkaline hydrolysis, uses a solution of water and potassium hydroxide to facilitate natural decomposition.

City of Oaks Funeral Home & Cremations