Elizabeth J. Young
February 10, 1929 - April 8, 2016
Resident of Santa Cruz
Elizabeth J. Young passed away peacefully at her home in Santa Cruz on April 8, 2016, after a long illness. She was 87 years old. Elizabeth (known as Betty) is survived by her two children, James E. Young of Amherst, MA and J. Allison Herfindahl of Aptos. She was predeceased by another child, John R. Young of Ben Lomond, and by her husband of 60 years, James A. Young. Betty also leaves behind three adoring grandchildren, Shannon Herfindahl of Santa Cruz, Asher Young and Ethan Young, both of Amherst, MA. She also leaves her loving daughter-in-law Lisa Ades of Amherst and New York, her loving grandson-in-law Devin Tomcik of Santa Cruz, and loving long-time family friend Brian Payne of Santa Cruz. Betty is also survived by her devoted step-siblings Kathy Sommese of Maryland and Gilbert Hogue of Idaho.
A devoted and affectionate aunt, Betty also leaves behind her loving nephews Mark E. Warren, of Vancouver, B.C. and Daniel J. Warren of Philometh, OR, and her loving niece Catherine Warren of Durham, NC. She also leaves her loving nephew, Michael Torre of Monterey, and a niece Kathy Torre Harris of Richmond Hill, GA. Betty Young was predeceased by her very close and loving brother, Charles E. Warren of Sisters, OR.
Born in Yreka, CA in 1929 to Edward J. Warren and Helen Gatke Warren, Betty Young spent most of her childhood and adult years in Santa Cruz. She received her degree as a Registered Nurse from San Jose State College in 1950 and served as an Emergency Room Nurse at O'Connor Hospital in San Jose until the birth of her first child. In 1962, Betty and her family moved from San Jose to Santa Cruz to be near her father Edward J. Warren and his wife Ruth Warren, and her husband Jim's mother Bertha Young, all living near Pleasure Point, where she lived for the last 54 years of her life. As her children left home in the mid-1970s, Betty returned to work, as both an officer and book keeper at Young Development Company, Inc. and as an auxiliary nurse and aid at Dominican Hospital.
As all who knew her remember her now, Betty Young was a natural and inveterate caretaker of all who came within her orbit. Her instincts as an Emergency Room nurse found full expression over the many years as a loving and open-hearted first responder to family, friends, and animals in need. She opened her heart and her home to all of her children's friends and their friends, serving many as a surrogate mother and counselor in the tumultuous era of the 1960s and 1970s, suggesting that because she lost her own mother to a strep infection when she was nine years old, she wanted to be a mother to all who needed one. Her unconditional love equaled her unconditional generosity of heart, time, caretaking, and material support for friends and family in need. Betty's caretaking instinct also led to the serial adoption of 10 different family dogs over the course of her last 60 years, many of them rescued as puppies.
Her grandchildren Shannon, Asher, and Ethan fondly recall how hands-on Betty was as a grandmother, tending them and doting on them as if, in Betty's words, "they were my children." Through her deep and generous love for her children and grandchildren, she taught all around her how to love and be loved unconditionally. This may be her greatest gift to all who ever knew her and is always part of how her friends and family remember her now.
For some 50 years, Betty hosted all of her extended family and friends' holiday and birthday dinners, often attended by a dozen or more family members and friends. The joy she took in life, food, and storytelling was contagious. For many years in the 1950s and 1960s, she played in a regular bridge group and occasional bridge tournaments. But her greatest joy in card playing was always poker, which she assiduously taught to her children and grandchildren, hosting many a poker night during her children's teenaged years.
Betty was a voracious reader and gifted letter-writer, who read on average some two novels a week, and she enjoyed political biographies, cookbooks, and travelogues, as well. An adventurous and intrepid traveler, Betty happily accompanied her husband Jim Young on business trips to Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mexico, and New York City, keeping detailed and often hilarious travelogues of her journeys, the food she ate, the people she met, and sights she saw.
A gifted water-colorist and oil painter, Betty provided dozens of art works for her children's and friends' homes around the country. An avid ocean and surf fisherwoman, Betty also loved fishing for trout in the lakes and streams of her beloved Cascade Mountains near Sisters, OR where she and her family spent parts of some 40 summers over the years.
A private memorial service for family and close friends is pending.
Contributions in Betty Young's memory can be made to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; or to the Mental Health Alliance; or to Hospice of Santa Cruz; or to any charity of the giver's choice.

View the online memorial for Elizabeth J. Young