Betty Begert, who taught religious education in Ridgefield for 50 years, has died

Elizabeth Margaret (Betty) Begert, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, aunt and friend passed away peacefully in Danbury, CT on Tuesday, November 6, 2018, after a long, happy life and a brief illness.

 

Betty was born in Beverly, MA February 14, 1922, and grew up in Poland Spring, ME, where her parents, Frank and Beatrice Cooper, owned the Centennial Spring House Hotel. After receiving her elementary education in a one-room schoolhouse run by the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Community, she graduated from Pennell Institute in Gray, ME, and earned a degree from Becker College, Worcester, MA in 1942.

 

In 1945, she met John Begert, who had just been discharged from the US Navy. Six months later they were married. Together she and John began a journey that took them to the University of Notre Dame, where she worked as the Executive Secretary to the Reverend Theodore Hesburgh, while John completed his degree. From Notre Dame, they moved to Quebec, and later Montreal, Canada; then on to New Jersey, back to South Bend, and settled in Ridgefield, CT in 1969. Betty willingly adopted the motto “Bloom Wherever You Are Planted” throughout these many moves, creating with John a wonderful, welcoming home for their eight children and many friends. A woman of deep and committed faith, she was a mainstay of Saint Mary’s parish in Ridgefield where she taught religious education for five decades, and remained active in the Connecticut Right To Life movement for nearly 50 years.

 

Betty will live on in the loving memories of her children, Joan (Bill) Soltesz, Redding, CT, John (Barbara) Begert, Bronxville, NY, Anne (John) Tropeano, New Canaan, CT, Kathryn (Paul) Stevens, Danbury, CT, Clare (Mark) Perry, Danbury, CT, Eileen (Oliver) Bergmann, Norwalk, CT and Thomas (Stacy) Begert, Burlington, CT and her sixteen grandchildren: Carrie (Christopher) Dino, Matthew Stevens, Laura Perry, Sarah Tropeano, Daniel Waters, Rebecca Perry, Maureen Waters, Blanca Begert, Elizabeth (William) Twersky, Andrew Tropeano, Jack Begert, Charlotte Bergmann, Emily Bergmann, Ryan Begert, Alex Begert, and Eric Begert. She was predeceased by her husband John, her daughter Mary Waters and her grandson William Soltesz. Betty is also survived by her brother Harold O. Cooper, and many nieces and nephews.