Former Miss America From Hackettstown Passes Away At 97

Elizabeth "Bette" Moore lived a quiet life in Connecticut following her 1937 pageant win.
By Katie Kausch , Patch Staff | Feb 26, 2018 8:28 am ET | Updated Feb 26, 2018 8:29 am ET

HACKETTSTOWN, NJ — Elizabeth C. Moore, a former Miss America from Hackettstown, passed away in December at her Greenwich, Connecticut home. She was 97.

Known as Bette, Moore won the title in 1937 after entering a pageant on a dare by some friends. She has refused to discuss her pageant win for most of her life, shunning reporters and pageant staff. According to the Miss America organization:

Bette, having second thoughts about her commitment, took off with her Pageant male chaperone, Frank Off, in a motor boat [after she was crowned]. The two floated around Atlantic City until the boardwalk crowds dispersed. No other contestant was crowned Miss America in her absence, though several participants from that year have made claim to the title throughout the decades.
Moore was born on Aug. 11, 1920 in Hackettstown. She graduated from Centenary Academy and Centenary College, and moved out of New Jersey following her schooling.

According to an obituary:

After graduation, she lived in Kentucky for several years working as a buyer for a food company. She married William F. Moore in 1951, and the couple moved to Greenwich, where they raised two children. Elizabeth had a beautiful singing voice and studied music in New York City, and sang for several years in the choir at St. Bartholomew's Church on Park Avenue. She was a member of the Second Congregational Church in Greenwich and sang in the choir there for 25 years. She also sang with the Grace Notes in Greenwich. She was an enthusiastic golfer and tennis player, and played both sports at the Greenwich Country Club and the Lake Placid Club in Lake Placid, N.Y., where the family spent part of nearly every summer while the children were growing up.
She is survived by her daughter, her son, four nieces and a nephew, and four grandchildren.

https://patch.com/new-jersey/hackettstown/former-miss-america-hackettstown-passes-away-97