Early on the morning of March 29th Betty Cooper died peacefully.

She was born Elizabeth Lyles Edwards on April 4 1925 and welcomed into a big multigenerational house in Tarboro, North Carolina. It's there she undoubtedly learned to always welcome everyone and anyone into her home and life.

She was always driven academically, graduating from Tarboro High School as the Valedictorian of her class, followed by two years at St Mary's Junior College where she was active, in what seems like all the appropriate clubs, as well as being elected Student Body President. She then went on to earn her BA in Mathematics from Chapel Hill in 1945 in one of the first graduating classes that included women.

She married at a young age to a theologian and minister. It was during this time she was exposed to the bigger world, with trips to Europe as well as the experience of living at several top universities along the east coast. They also had a son we called Mac.

She later landed in Philadelphia where, while she was working for Towers Perrin, she met her second husband and started another chapter. Together they had two children, Grant and Lucy. They became pioneers of the, then newly-built, planned community of Reston, VA, and then moved to Princeton, NJ in 1972.

She was giving, more than most, hosting any friend as long as needed, always sharing her table and a good home cooked meal. She could often be found working in the garden but gave a good bit of her time to volunteering for, in particular, Meals on Wheels, accounting for a Trenton Co-Op, and, due to her love of books, at several libraries.

She would never have called herself social, but her giving nature and good southern charm made her sometimes irresistible. She was "sharp as a briar" as one of her relatives called her and was so until the day she died, just days before her 97 ^th Birthday. Her innate wisdom will be missed by all who knew her.

She is predeceased by her two husbands Robert M McNair and G Ashley Cooper, and son Robert M McNair Jr.

She leaves behind her two remaining children, her stepdaughter Carol and her husband, two amazing daughters-in-law, and 7 grandchildren. She will be greatly missed.