Bettie H. Rogers passed away April 7, 2025, in Red Bank, of natural causes; a heart attack took her life quickly and apparently painlessly. Her death occurred at the Atrium at Navesink Habor. She was 98 years old.
Bettie was born March 11, 1927, in Franklin, North Carolina, the second of three children of Dr. H.T. and Mamie Horsley. She was married twice, to José Ángel Peña and Edward Rogers. She is survived by three children from her first marriage, six grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and five stepsons.
Bettie was educated at Wake Forest College, the New School for Social Research and Brookdale Community College, where she studied journalism, liberal studies, education, photography and Spanish. She was a world traveler who documented her trips with photographs of cultural sites in Europe and the Americas.
During a lengthy period when her family was challenged by her first husband’s disabling illness, she set aside hopes for a career of her choosing and supported her family by teaching in the local schools. She enjoyed the role of teacher and performed it well. She taught in Middletown Township’s elementary schools for several decades until her retirement, at which age she was still greeted affectionately by former students who recognized her in the grocery store.
Her employment in teaching, as essentially a single parent, made the higher education of her children possible; they all attained graduate degrees and academic honors. Bettie’s descendants are accomplished in the arts, academic scholarship, technology, education and the helping professions. Her great-grandchildren now show interest and talent in creative activities they share with their elders.
Perhaps her happiest times were her 12 years of independent living at the Atrium. An outgoing person, she loved belonging to a residential community. There she developed games and activities, participated in painting and writing classes, and edited the residence’s newsletter.
She enjoyed warm family reunions where birthdays and holidays were celebrated with delicious food and heartfelt music. The arts are important to the Peña/Rogers family, and their matriarch exhibited her paintings and photography at the Atrium and in the larger community.
Late in life, she became an author and published three collections of memoir pieces and short fiction. Publication of the first was celebrated with family and community in a gala book launch.
Bettie supported civil rights and other humanitarian causes. She and her second husband, Ed Rogers, were founding members of Lunch Break, the first community meals program to serve the needy on Red Bank’s West Side.
Ever aware of political affairs, she kept abreast of the news and had fervent opinions about current events. She was loved and will be remembered for her humor and her independent, “feisty” spirit. Her apartment door was decorated with mottos and news headlines, including a bumper sticker proclaiming, “APATHY IS NOT AN OPTION!”
The article originally appeared in the April 24 – 30, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
