Elizabeth Louise Kopp

I met Elizabeth in 2016, and loved every second I spent with her. She had the best stories, and always made me laugh. She had so much love for her friends and family, and getting to be a part of her life was an honor. I still think of her often and will remember all of the lessons she taught me during the few years I knew her. I will continue her love of the Cubs and the sweeter things in life.

- Colleen M

Aunt Betty was a delight, and we will greatly miss her. When Dave’s job took him out of town, which was quite often in the late 1990s, Betty would have me over for dinner once a week. I would drive over straight from work and Betty would have dinner waiting. After dinner Betty would take out her collection of Tyrone Power movies and we would have a double feature. Tyrone was her favorite and Dave and I always tried to find new copies of his movies for her. During the summer, we would watch the Cubs instead as Betty was a diehard Cubs fan. Once she moved to Michigan (and we are forever grateful for Cathy’s care and attention to Betty during these years) our conversations were more over the phone rather than dinner. Betty lamented the lack of Cubs coverage in the paper, not being interested in the Detroit Tigers. So, I started cutting out all the Cubs articles from the Tribune and sending them to her, especially during the World Series year of 2016. We tried to visit Betty as often as we could, combining with visits to my family who were scattered all over Michigan, yet a few were in the Grand Rapids area. I think Betty enjoyed the visits, we certainly enjoyed visiting with her, especially when the Cubs were winning, ah, those were the days.

- Sharon Kopp

Of course, we loved Betty and God Bless her, she did have the Kopp temper. Her motto was if it can’t be done get a bigger hammer and she truly lived her live that way. There was time when Dad, I think it was my brother Mike and I were golfing at Western Acres with Betty, one of the very few times I got to play golf with her. We were on the difficult par 3 3rd hole and Betty’s shot made it over the water (good) but was well left, (bad) in Western Acres’ famous US Open deep rough. She had a really tough shot, coming out of the rough, over the corner of the sand trap, over the edge of the green and the hole was cut way on the far right, so the ball had to travel a long way. She played one of the best shots I had ever seen, popping the ball up onto the green and it rolled until it sat on the edge of the cup. A mere tap in for a par. A remarkable shot, wonderous shot, Dad, Mike and I were cheering how great it was. Betty, though, was not pleased. She tended to have a bit of a foul mouth and every curse word flung from her lips and her club nearly went flying. Dad, Mike and I were stunned, telling her how great of a shot it was. Betty would have none of it. The shot was horrible because, damn it, it didn’t go in the hole! I laugh about this memory to this day. Other wonderful memories of Betty include the great Christmas Eve cookout when we made burgers and dogs on the grill for Christmas Eve dinner. This was decades before the fancy Weber grills of today, all she had was a cheap Sears grill. Never mind it was below 0 and Dad and Ken could barely keep the fire going. I’ll never forget that night. Or when she and Ken came over on Christmas Eve and they walked in with a present for my Mom and Dad and Kenny tossed it at Ed and said Merry Christmas. The throw was well short and the present landed on the floor with a distinct sound of glass breaking. They were engraved Irish Whiskey glasses as Mom and Dad had traveled to Ireland the previous August and found they enjoyed the beverage. I don’t think Betty ever fully forgave Kenny for that one. We love you Betty, your unique energy and love of family will remain with us.

- David Kopp