PASSINGS: Betty Moffitt, George Harper Jr.

Betty Moffitt

Mother of Billie Jean King and pitcher Randy Moffitt

Betty Moffitt, 91, the mother of tennis great Billie Jean King and former major league pitcher Randy Moffitt, died Friday at her home in Prescott, Ariz., King’s publicist said.

King announced Wednesday that she would not attend the opening ceremony of the Sochi Olympics with the U.S. delegation as planned because of her mother’s failing health.

Betty Jerman was born May 26, 1922, in Taft, Calif. She married Bill Moffitt and raised their two children in Long Beach, where they lived for more than 40 years. They were married 65 years, until his death in 2006.

King described her mother as a good swimmer and dancer, who helped the tennis prodigy remain balanced with piano lessons and schoolwork. Over the years King often expressed thankfulness for her parents’ support growing up in Long Beach.

“You just know when people believe in you. That’s what children need,” King told The Times in 1988 when she put on an exhibition in her hometown.

Moffitt’s son, Randy, pitched for 12 seasons in the major leagues, mainly with the San Francisco Giants.

George Harper Jr.

Tenor saxophonist toured with Ray Charles

George Harper Jr., 71, a tenor saxophonist who toured with Ray Charles in the early 2000s and played regularly in local jazz clubs, died Wednesday at a Santa Monica hospice of natural causes, his family announced.

Besides accompanying Charles on concert tours in the last few years before the singer’s death in 2004, Harper played with Herbie Hancock, Bobby Caldwell, Jimmy Smith, Doug Carn and other jazzmen.

He did not become a full-time jazz musician until the early 1990s, working for more than 25 years in the aerospace industry as a software programmer.

His introduction to music came at an early age. He was born March 7, 1942, in Savannah, Ga., where his father was an Episcopal minister and church choir director. He became interested in jazz as a teenager and devoted himself to the genre while studying at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

-- Los Angeles Times staff and wire reports

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