Notla — For 28 years, Betty Luckey answered the phone never knowing what was on the other end. She was the link between horror and help.
Luckey was a police dispatcher, whose workdays were filled with anxiety, fear and hope as she would answer the calls of those who were looking to be rescued from their situation.
One dispatch call she remembers in particular was a hang-up. She went against protocol and stepped out on faith to save a woman who was unable to speak at the time of her call in to the sheriff’s office.
“I acted by faith only instead of following the exact procedure. I sent the officer anyway,” Luckey said. “I didn’t have to because it wasn’t by the book, but something told me to get her help immediately. It was just a weird hang-up call.
“I pulled the officer off of something else and had him go. It saved her life. There was an intruder in her home. I could have gotten in a lot of trouble because I didn’t go by the book, but God told me to send her help now.”
In 28 years with the sheriff’s office, Luckey also spent time as a patrol officer. She described one scary and dangerous situation in which she was the first officer on a scene where two older men were about to kill each other.
“My backup wasn’t gonna be there for a few minutes. I got out of the patrol car and ordered one guy to get by a tree, and the other guy to get by another tree. Both men stopped what they were doing, looked at me and went and stood by their trees,” Luckey said.”
“They both had long rap sheets, and when the supervisor asked them a few minutes later why they had done what I told them to do, their response was, ‘Any lady crazy enough to come up here and break up the two of us is crazy enough to use that gun she’s got on her hip.’ ”
Luckey worked with several different sheriff’s offices, including Martin and Okeechobee counties as well as the Seminole Tribe in Florida. She was the only woman on the Martin County Posse.
In addition, she has worked with the Lake Park Police Department and Florida Marine Patrol. She was also a certified auxiliary deputy and did security at Trinity Broadcasting Network, but the job she loved the most was that of a radio emergency dispatcher.
Luckey retired from law enforcement in 2004. The New York native, who was born in 1943, spends her retired years in Cherokee County. Her hobbies include writing, playing the piano for Notla Baptist Church and raising bloodhound puppies.
She has also authored two books, both can be found on Amazon. One is titled Operation: Devil’s Garden by Elizabeth Swan Luckey, and is about the evil that lies within areas of south Florida that appear so beautiful.
The other book, by Beth Swan Luckey, is an autobiography titled Jesus’ Mountain. It is her life story, and what happens when you put your complete trust and faith in God.
Luckey was married until the passing of her husband three years ago. She has four grown children.
When asked what’s her favorite part of living here, she said, “The view, the scenery. I’m up high on the mountain, and my only view is of my Notla Baptist Church. It’s a beautiful antique, made in the 1800s, a stone building with stained-glass windows and a white steeple.
“When I look out my upstairs window, all I can see is my little church on the other side of the valley, just shining in the sunlight. God told me when I left Florida not to worry, He’d find a house for me, and I would see my church from it.”