Elisabeth Mildred “Bette” Peco, of Maple Shade, New Jersey, passed away on September 1, 2026 at the age of 93. Born July 25, 1933, Bette was a daughter of the greatest generation, and she carried that generation’s grit, humor, and plain good sense with her all her life.

Bette lived a full and hardworking life. After her first marriage, to Chester Petrina, she raised her first three children. From the mid-1960s through the mid-1970s she kept the books for the foreign car business owned by her second husband, Tony Hwilka. Later, as a single mother raising her youngest daughter, Sandy, she went into business for herself — first as the owner of “China Flower,” a high-end Chinese restaurant in Middletown, New Jersey, during the years she lived in Highlands with Sandy, and later as the proprietor of “Horse Feathers,” a restaurant and tavern in Hainesport that hosted many of the top local musicians of the day in the early 1980s. After selling that establishment she tended bar in Mount Holly. Through all of it she worked, she provided, and she did it on her own terms.

It was in those years that she met Howard Peco, who became her third husband and her great companion. Howard proposed to her early on along the Blue Ridge Mountain drive, and the two of them went on to spend years traveling the country together, Bette riding on the back of Howard’s motorcycle. Skyline Drive in Virginia and the Blue Ridge run remained their favorites. She also took three cross-country journeys with her daughter Jessie, mapping out some of the richest and most beautiful points this nation has to offer. Howard preceded her in death in 2012.

At home in Maple Shade, Bette led a quiet life she genuinely enjoyed. She kept a vegetable garden, and she fed and watched the birds in her backyard. She baked generously and constantly, sharing everything she made with family and friends, to their delight. She was known for her five-flavor pound cake and for a remarkable output of cookies. Christmas at Bette’s was a looked-forward-to affair — one year she turned out a thousand cookies.

Elisabeth had a wonderful mind. She read every day, beginning with the newspaper, front page to back page, and she collected hundreds of books, each of which she read cover to cover and then passed along to family and friends. Her extensive vocabulary went straight into a legendary stack of crossword puzzles. Her daughter Jessie often said that her mother was the first “internet,” for she had a high intellect and a memory that carried through history, foreign countries and affairs, politics, and much more. She was also an avid sports fan, and loved watching games and talking them over with her sister Doris and her daughter Sandy.

She loved the older black-and-white films and was a true movie buff. She could name every actor on the screen, tell you what was happening in the world the year the picture was made, and explain how the events left behind. It was a real treasure to watch television with her. Her sister Dot shared that love, and the two of them went to the movies together all their lives, just as they had when they were little girls.

Bette had a deep love for animals, and a particular fondness for the canine world. She kept dogs through many years of her life and cared for them as she did her own children — sometimes better, as she would have been the first to laugh and admit. Her grand-dogs held a special place in her heart.

Elisabeth led a rich life of intellect, love, and humor. She was a no-nonsense woman who enjoyed her life, her family, and her friends. She loved to laugh, and she loved having fun with the people around her.

It was her daughter Gail who first made Bette a grandmother, with the birth of her son Ryan — and years later it was Ryan who made his grandmother a great-grandmother, with the birth of his daughter Makayla.

She is survived by her children, Chester Hwilka and his wife Winifred of Hainesport, New Jersey; Jessica Cullen and her husband Steve of Chinook, Washington; Gail Wigmore of Delanco, New Jersey; and Sandy Pashley of Glen Burnie, Maryland; by her sisters, Doris “Dot” Baum of Burlington, New Jersey, and Alice Petrina of Daytona, Florida; by her grandchildren, Ryan, Jason, and Sean; and by her great-grandchildren, Makayla and Georgia. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Howard Peco.

Among the many things Bette gathered in her years of reading was a saying she kept:

“You die twice in this lifetime.

Once when your body fails,

and once when people stop telling your stories.”

That will never happen with Elisabeth Peco. Her story is one that will remain in our hearts and will be repeated many times over through the years to come.

She will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved her.