PITTSBORO - Former Chief District Court Judge Lowry M. Betts, known as a by-the-book judge with a strict courtroom demeanor, died Monday in his home near Pittsboro after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 76.

Betts was appointed judge for Judicial District 15-B, encompassing Orange and Chatham counties, in 1986 and served 10 years, retiring with the first signs of Parkinson's.

"I don't believe he was ever happier than when he was in the courtroom," said Doris Betts, his wife of 55 years and a writer and retired UNC-Chapel Hill professor.

The couple met at a summer church retreat when she was 14 and he was 16. Though she lived in Statesville and he in Columbia, S.C., the two kept in touch through letters.

"He was the smartest boy I'd ever met," Doris Betts said. "I thought, I'll keep this one."

Betts said her husband was drawn to the law by his natural propensity to argue.

"He was a good arguer and a rational man, and he liked to win arguments," Betts said. "It finally dawned on him that it might be a talent and not just an infuriating habit."

After graduation from the UNC School of Law in 1956, he joined a Sanford law practice. During his career, he served as the Sanford city attorney, the Carrboro town attorney and attorney for the Sanford City School Board.

He retired in the early 1980s to raise Arabian horses on an 80-acre farm that the Bettses bought near Pittsboro, a hobby he kept up until his death. He had never owned horses and was not a rider, his wife said, but he loved the beauty of the horses. However, he soon realized he missed the law and returned to the courtroom a few years later, after being appointed District Court judge.

Sherri Million, a Chatham County lawyer, said Lowry Betts would pick on her when she was a young lawyer, gruffly criticizing her for wearing granny boots to court rather than standard suits, and ridiculing her arguments in court.

She confronted Betts in his chambers one day, demanding to know why he gave her such a hard time.

"He said, 'I just want you to be the best lawyer you can be,' " Million recalled Tuesday. "I said, 'But you don't do it to anyone else.' He said, 'I don't care about anybody else. I care about you.' "

Million said Betts became a father figure to her. His courtroom demands made her a better lawyer, she said, and he helped her through some difficult times personally.

"He could be such a grumpy old man," Million said. "But underneath it all, he had a heart of gold."

And he occasionally let a bit of dry wit peek through his strict courtroom decorum, friends said. Current Chief District Court Judge Joe Buckner recalled waiting one day as a lawyer in Betts' courtroom for one of his cases to be called. As Betts was leafing through the paperwork for the defendant before him, he noted that it was the man's birthday.

"All he said was, 'Did they serve you any cake in the jail?' " Buckner said. "Then he sent him to prison."

In addition to his wife, Betts is survived by his three children, Doris LewEllyn Betts of Clemson, S.C., David Lowry Betts of Pittsboro, and Erskine Moore Betts of Apex; and three grandchildren.

A service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at the Pittsboro Presbyterian Church. Burial in the church yard will immediately follow.