{"id":573,"date":"2022-01-30T13:51:48","date_gmt":"2022-01-30T13:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/?p=573"},"modified":"2022-01-30T13:51:48","modified_gmt":"2022-01-30T13:51:48","slug":"i-seemed-to-speak-out-early-evanston-resident-elizabeth-werrenrath-reflects-on-her-first-107-years-evanston-roundtable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/?p=573","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I seemed to speak out early\u2019: Evanston resident Elizabeth Werrenrath reflects on her first 107 years – Evanston RoundTable"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Evanston RoundTable<\/a>
\t\t\t\t\tEvanston’s community newspaper since 1998\t\t\t\t
While I was sitting across from Elizabeth \u201cBetty\u201d Imbrie Werrenrath, I couldn\u2019t help but think about our age difference \u2013 84 years. While my earliest memories are trips to Disney World in the early 2000s, Betty\u2019s stretch back to World War I.
Before our interview, I was surprised to find glimpses of her life online \u2013 her high school and college alumni newsletters, records of the short films she made with her husband and even her engagement<\/a> and wedding <\/a>announcement in the New York Times from 1937.
I knew right away this was a woman who really lived, and upon meeting her, all my suspicions were confirmed.
Betty wanted to speak in person rather than over the phone, so I put on my N-95 mask and walked into the Highlands Assisted Living at Westminster Place on Simpson Street, passing a garden I soon would learn her late husband Reinald Werrenrath Jr. had advocated for.
After a temperature check, we headed back to her apartment where I learned about her long life and great love, Reinald, and the wonderful parts of her 108 years.\u00a0
Betty was born on Jan. 28, 1914, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Her father went to Princeton University and her mother to Vassar College.
Her father was a progressive Presbyterian minister who inspired Betty to spend a life dedicated to service and justice.
\u201cI had an incredible upbringing, but I was always a preacher\u2019s kid and I had to act decently in the world because he was so well-known,\u201d she said. \u201cI just automatically did what I thought was right.\u201d
She attended Walnut Hill School for the Arts, at the time an all-girls private boarding school in Natick, Mass., and graduated in 1931. Today she is the school\u2019s oldest living alumna. Her yearbook biography (pictured above) begins, \u201cDashing down the field, making baskets, shooting goals, and lobbing balls across the net \u2013 that\u2019s Imbrie, Athletic Association President\u2026and we bet she\u2019s going to make some army officer a wonderful wife! \u201d
Although she didn\u2019t marry an army officer, she found the love of her very long life at Wells College in Aurora, New York. Reinald and Betty were married for 82 years but knew each other for 86. Reinald was visiting Wells, where his sister also attended, and asked her to find him a date.
Reinald\u2019s sister started listing people and when she mentioned Betty, Reinald was interested. But she was a minister\u2019s daughter, his sister said, so she assumed he wouldn\u2019t be interested. Reinald didn\u2019t care and they went on their first date.\u00a0
When I asked Betty if she missed Reinald, she said, \u201cWe had 86 years together, it was incredible. When I get sad and tearful, I think, \u2018What are you crying about? You had a wonderful life and how many people do you know got to love somebody for 86 years?\u2019\u201d
But Reinald isn\u2019t the whole story, Betty had her own life, too. She was the president of her freshman class at Wells and an athlete with a full scholarship that included a job in the alumni office. She played field hockey, soccer, lacrosse, tennis and golf.
\u201cI seemed to speak out early,\u201d Betty said when I asked her about her multiple passions and interests in college. This same drive for advocacy and involvement followed her for the rest of her life. She graduated with a degree in art history in 1935 and married Reinald in 1937.
Betty and Reinald moved to Forest Hills, New York, and Betty worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Reinald at NBC. He was asked to relocate to Chicago to launch WBKB, now known as ABC-7, Chicago\u2019s first commercially licensed television station.
In 2016, Reinald gave an interview with ABC-7 as the last surviving member of the original WBKB team.
\u201cI couldn\u2019t have visualized what it\u2019s [television] like today, but I knew it was a big thing of the future,\u201d he said.
Betty and Reinald moved to Hinman Ave in Evanston in 1940, and Kirsten, their first child, was born in 1941. In 1942, duty called, and Reinald joined the armed forces as a Navy Officer Candidate School in World War II. During the war, Betty and Kirsten moved back to New York to live with her family.
\u201cThe world was an exciting place, but then the war came, and of course, it changed everybody\u2019s lives,\u201d Betty said.
After his military service, Reinald and Betty landed in Highland Park, where they resided for 53 years. Their two sons, Reinald (Ren) and Peter, were born. Reinald resumed his television career and both he and Betty became active members of the community, championing human rights and education.
Betty volunteered with Meals on Wheels, worked with local churches on youth reading programs and advocated for social justice and equality in and outside of their church.
Betty says she doesn\u2019t see God as someone up in the sky \u201cwatching\u201d over us.
\u201cI\u2019m a progressive. I believe that if there is an organization, like the church, not everyone is theological-oriented, but everybody has an experience relating to other people,\u201d she said. \u201cI see changes that need to be made and that is what I have been doing for years.\u201d
The next half century was filled with travel, equity work, family and short films \u2013 Reinald and Betty made over 100 16mm educational films that were distributed nationwide.
In 1998, they moved into a townhouse in Presbyterian Homes in Evanston. Twenty years later, Reinald had a stroke at age 103. They settled into a new apartment in assisted living and Reinald passed away in 2019 at 104.
When Reinald passed, Betty said she was thankful to be able to stay in the same apartment, as she can still feel a part of him with her. As COVID-19 came and swept through assisted and independent living facilities, Betty spent a lot more time secluded in her room, something she wasn\u2019t used to.
Friends could call but it wasn\u2019t the same as visiting in person. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t easy,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting to be part of the world, and that\u2019s one of the troubles of being 107, you feel like you are cut off, except when you stick your nose in.\u201d
Betty does her best thinking in the morning at her desk. She is on three committees: newcomers, spirituality and recycling. Until Betty, the assisted living facility did not have recycling cans in their rooms.
She said she has to be involved. \u201cIf you sit in your home and watch the world go by, you\u2019re not worth living. I may be old, but I have learned a lot and I am still learning. I am not afraid of dying, but I don\u2019t want to die yet.\u201d
When asked why she thinks she lived so long, Betty said she goes on a walk every day, is an avid reader and follows the 4A\u2019s, a system she created: Accept what you have, adapt to that acceptance, act on it and have a good attitude.
\u201cI have to accept the fact that I am a 107 and I am limited by my eyesight and be grateful,\u201d she said.
And when it comes to Reinald, she says she has to accept that he passed, but that they spent nearly a century inseparable.
\u201cDo I ever get lonely? Yes and no. Reinald was such an important part of my life; he is still with me in spirit.\u201d
As our interview ended, Betty and I talked about my life a little. I told her I had a boyfriend, and she said, \u201cThank goodness. That\u2019s all I want to know.\u201d
Betty was 23 years old when she got married, the same age I am now. As I write this article, I\u2019m reminded that love is the one thing that doesn\u2019t change based on the decade. It is a constant we can always count on, and if we\u2019re lucky, it may just last almost a century.
Happy 108th Birthday, Betty Werrenrath!
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