Elizabeth "Bette" Cooper-Moore (August 11, 1920 – December 10, 2017) won the
Miss America 1937
Miss America 1937, the 11th Miss America pageant, was held at the Steel Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey on Saturday, September 11, 1937. Shortly after being presented as Miss America, the newly crowned 17-year-old winner, Bette Cooper, left ...
pageant as
Miss Bertrand Island, representing an amusement park on
Lake Hopatcong
Lake Hopatcong is the largest freshwater body in New Jersey, United States, about in area. Located from the Delaware River and from Manhattan, New York City, the lake forms part of the border between Sussex and Morris counties in the state's ...
in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
.
Early life
She was born in
Hackettstown, New Jersey
Hackettstown is a town in Warren County, New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the town's population was 10,248.
Hackettstown was incorporated as a town by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 9, 1853, from portions of Inde ...
.
Cooper attended Centenary Junior College (now
Centenary University
Centenary University is a private liberal arts university in Hackettstown, New Jersey. Founded as a preparatory school by the Newark Conference of the United Methodist Church in 1867, Centenary evolved into a Junior College for women and later ...
) in Hackettstown where she was a member of the Delta Sigma Sigma sorority and graduated from Centenary Junior College's Academy in 1938 at ceremonies attended by
Governor of New Jersey
The governor of New Jersey is the head of government of New Jersey. The office of governor is an elected position with a four-year term. There is a two consecutive term term limit, with no limitation on non-consecutive terms. The official r ...
,
A. Harry Moore
Arthur Harry Moore (July 3, 1877 – November 18, 1952) was an American Democratic politician and attorney who was the 39th governor of New Jersey, serving three nonconsecutive three-year terms between 1926 and 1941. As of , Moore remains t ...
, later graduating from Centenary Junior College in 1940.
Pageantry
She caused a stir when she disappeared for some 24 hours with 23-year-old Louis Off, after winning the Miss America title.
Evidently overwhelmed by what was expected of her, she insisted upon a much lighter schedule so that she could attend college. This led pageant officials to have future Miss America contestants sign agreements as to what duties were expected of the winner and also be chaperoned.
Career
Cooper, who did some modeling and appearances in the years after her title, long shunned any connection or involvement with Miss America.
Michael Callahan wrote a
roman à clef
''Roman à clef'' (, anglicised as ), French for ''novel with a key'', is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship be ...
on Cooper titled ''The Night She Won Miss America'' (2017).
Personal life
She married a Wall Street executive, William Moore, and had two children, Cheryl and Gregory, as well as four grandchildren.
Cooper died in December 2017 at the age of 97.
References
External links
Lake Hopatcong Historical Museum Lake Hopatcong News
1920 births
2017 deaths
Centenary University alumni
Miss America 1930s delegates
Miss America winners
People from Hackettstown, New Jersey
20th-century American people
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