Elizabeth Runyan Steiner Hoenig – child of the Great Depression, high school valedictorian, fervent opera lover, diehard New York Giants fan, devoted wife, loving mother, proud Grandma, Nanny and Oma – died peacefully in her sleep at her Crane's Mill home in West Caldwell on Aug. 2, 2019.
Betty, as she was affectionately known to her many friends and family, was predeceased in 2017 by her beloved husband of 67 years, Egon. As Wesley Lovely, her 3-year old great-grandson so wisely said when his mother told him the news, "Well Mama, that means she's with Opa again, right?" Yes, Wes, that's right.
She was undoubtedly at peace with the world because she had returned less than a week earlier from her annual two-week vacation with her family in Ocean Park, Maine, a special place where she had been vacationing her entire life and a legacy which is now being shared by the fifth generation of her family.
Betty grew up in East Orange and was the valedictorian of the East Orange High School class of 1942. Her father, an electrical engineer, and mother, whose Parsons family ties reached back to the mid-1660s, raised Betty and her older sister, Peggy, during the depths of the Great Depression. They placed a high value on education, and, after graduation, Betty attended Middlebury College in Vermont during the war years and graduated in 1946. Upon graduation, she began work at the Bell Telephone Company in East Orange and resumed attending Calvary Methodist Church, which was where, in 1947, she met the love of her life and future husband during a meeting of the church's young adults' group.
Betty and Egon were married on October 8, 1949. They moved into an apartment in East Orange, but less than a year later purchased a new home on Wellington Road in Livingston, where they raised their family and lived for over 60 years.
Although she did not serve in the Armed Forces during World War II, Betty and others like her truly were members of the "Greatest Generation." When the war ended, she, along with thousands of women, quietly, passionately and confidently began raising families, working and contributing to society in countless, unsung ways. Betty was a stay-at-home mom for her two young children, Don and Nancy, and she was the best mother that any child could ever hope for - loving, caring, nurturing, gentle, kind, steady, reliable, and always there - ...
