Elizabeth "Betty" Larsen

There is much about Betty that is not known as of this writing, particularly her early years, but as we progress and find out more, we will update accordingly. Though her last name was Scandinavian in origin, she did have German in her lineage.

Betty became as much a member of the Nelson family as one could possibly be without marriage or birth ties. She never married, but her nurturing ways found an outlet with the three younger Nelsons, Marilyn, Gene, and Howie. Betty took her Sunday school teaching duties at South Reformed Church a step further and became involved in the students’ lives. The relationship grew to include the rest of the Nelson family. Betty is a sister in the true sense of the word.

In circa 1950 Betty lived across 56th Street from the Nelson family's 367 address. Her apartment was actually at the basement level in the four-story apartment building at 374 56th Street. Access was through a wrought iron gate down into a lower level courtyard that was large enough to provide the only light to her apartment through the windows that faced the courtyard. Shortly after Bernie and Warren bought the tenement house at 367 56th Street, they offered Betty the fourth floor apartment vacated by the recently deceased owner, Henry "Harry" Poppe.

Betty worked in Manhattan, though the particulars are vague at this point. But she wrapped herself around her church family at South Reformed. She always had a smile on her face. In addition to teaching Sunday school she was a dependable regular in the church choir. Her voice was a powerful and sweet soprano, and she was often called upon to sing solos.

Not long after the Nelsons sold 367 (circa 1963) and moved to West Milford, New Jersey, Betty followed suit and bought a cute little cottage on Pinecliff Lake, within earshot of her Nelson families of Bernie and Jennie, Bob and Dot, Warren and Louise, Gene and Anne, Howie and Lily, and Kenny and Darby. A half-hour down the road in Wyckoff was Marilyn and Tony Crossley. The only missing Nelsons were Dick and Pat, who were living further south in New Jersey, near Philadelphia, and Alice and Allen, who were three hours further north in Richmondville, New York. Betty made the one-hour bus commute every day to her job in Manhattan.

In June of 1973 Betty and a co-worker joined Bob and Dot and Gene and Anne on a memorable Bermuda Cruise.