Going Strong at 100: Betty Keen Birthday Surprise Party with Daughter Sue and Many Friends
Avalon’s Elizabeth Boyd Rhodes Keen, better known as Betty, will officially celebrate her 100th birthday on May 24. But there’s already been more than one celebratory gathering honoring this lovely lady, thanks to her vivacious daughter Sue Keen.
Close to 100 guests joined Betty and Sue for a 100th birthday surprise luncheon at Avalon Golf Club’s Avalon Links Restaurant on April 23.
Betty, who was smartly dressed in pink slacks with a white shirt and a beige jacket, kept her composure and smiled graciously upon her arrival as Sue wheeled her into Avalon Links’ handsome banquet room. “I’m really surprised,” Betty said as well-wishers lined up one after another and enthusiastically waited to speak with the honoree.
“This is the second birthday party for me,” Betty said while nodding back toward her daughter Sue. “So, I guess I’m now 200 years old!” she said in jest. The aforementioned party was a “99 and Counting” surprise birthday party that she threw for Betty in 2022, Sue explains. When they walked into that party, Betty mistakenly thought they were celebrating Sue’s 75th birthday that fell on May 28. So, Betty was doubly surprised.
Mother and daughter might best be described as sidekicks.
When Sue is not working as Mayor Martin Pagliughi’s assistant, her mom is by her side on all sorts of errands and outings, Sue says. “Mom is my co-pilot in the car,” a co-pilot who jokingly offered to drive one day after they frustratingly could not find a parking spot.
That’s how party guests Lynne Moore and Marie Nugent, who are both retired from working at Holy Redeemer Home Care and Hospice’s Healthy Families program, became acquainted with Betty. Whenever Sue, who serves on the board of Redeemer Health Jersey Shore Food Pantry, drops off donated food or winter coats or Christmas gifts for families, Betty is by her side, they said. Their friend Pam Snashall notes that Sue’s and Betty’s support of Healthy Families dates back to the mid-1990s when they were volunteers assisting Sister Mary Ann McDonagh, the late founder of Holy Redeemer Home Care and Holy Redeemer Food Bank.
Another friend, cat lover Sallie Davis became acquainted with Betty through Sue, as well. Sue founded the Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR) program to humanely address the island’s feral cat population 25 years ago, the TNR volunteer explained.
Her mother maintains longevity nicely, Sue notes. “Mom’s got better blood pressure and heart rate than me,” she adds. Mobility-wise, Betty walks short distances at home on a walker and uses a wheelchair on outings as needed. She manages her own personal hygiene.
“Betty is doing great. She looks great and is as sharp as ever,” said her nephew and partygoer Jack Oberholtzer. His daughter Amy Oberholtzer, 25, agreed. “Betty is just as sharp now as she was when I was a kid,” said her great-niece. “She is super-sharp!”
Trips back and forth from her native Philadelphia to the island began for Betty in 1927 when her parents, Harry and Lillian Rhodes, brought their three children to visit their grandparents. Betty became engaged to Frank “Skip” Keen in Avalon and they were married in 1943. Mrs. Skip Keen lived in Avalon while her husband served his country as a heroic member of the U.S. Navy’s crew on the SS Marcus Daly during World War II.
After the war, the Keens relocated to Southwest Philly, where Skip worked in the family’s Harry A. Keen & Son Plumbing and Heating business. Betty bore two children, Sue and the late Skip Jr. Their family moved permanently to Avalon in 1966. Betty lost her beloved husband three years later in 1969 and her beloved son in 2019. Outside of the home, Betty worked as an Avalon Borough clerk and served as a school board member.
Maybe that explains Mayor Martin Pagliughi’s quip in his address at her party: “I heard it on the street that when I retire, Sue will retire and that you will apply for the job, Betty.” The mayor and his wife Lynda have known the Keens for some 45 years.
Other party guests, like Villa Maria by the Sea IHM retreat house’s Sister James and Sister Andrew counted their blessings in knowing Betty. “Betty is one great lady, a great woman of God,” said Sister James. “It’s a privilege to know her.” Sister Andrew nodded in agreement.
Mary Pratico of 7 Mile Travel described Betty and Sue as her best friends. She first befriended Sue in the early 1990s, and later Betty, as members of St. Brendan the Navigator Parish’s Rosary Group, an active prayer and social group founded by Lynda Pagliughi.
She and Betty were among the first five members of the Rosary Group, Sue says. Today, the group includes some 15 to 18 members. These days when the group meets in church to pray the rosary on Tuesday nights, Betty and Sue join them in spirit and pray at home.
“Mom is probably one of the most faithful Catholics around,” Sue asserts. “She was not born a Catholic. Dad was a Catholic. Mom converted.”
Betty takes her conversion seriously. She regularly prays three rosaries a day and occasionally four or five, her daughter says. While at home, Betty joins others remotely in praying some of those rosaries, in addition to other daily devotions like mass and praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet, thanks to the EWTN Catholic television network, Sue adds.
In her spare time, Betty enjoys other television programs, classic oldies like “The Waltons,” “The Rifleman,” “Bonanza,” “Gunsmoke,” and “Wagon Train.” She also likes being challenged by game shows like “Concentration” and “The Match Game.”
This Avalonian lives a full life as a 100-year-old.
Ironically, Betty had a close call with death at what was then Burdette Tomlin Memorial Hospital in 1991, Sue says. The late Monsignor Patrick Tierney joined family members in Betty’s hospital room, for it appeared to be the end of her life. Suddenly, Betty sat up and vomited at the priest’s feet. “Glory be to God, it’s ‘The Exorcist’!” Monsignor Tierney declared.
In her consciousness, it became evident that Betty had a near-death experience before being medevaced to Cooper University Hospital for an angioplasty. “Mom said she was floating over the room while being drawn into light,” says Sue. “She saw pinks and yellows in shades unknown to us and heard a voice that said, ‘You’re not in control.’”
People often ask Betty how she feels about being 100, Sue says. “Well, I’m going to be here until I die,” replied the woman of faith who once caught a glimpse of eternal life’s glory.
