Elizabeth Ann Howes

Elizabeth Ann (Betsy) Howes, 71, of Lexington, Massachusetts, formerly of Newton, died on September 2, 2026.

She was born in Albany, New York, in 1955, the first child of Harold Rohrer Howes and Alice Spore Howes. All four of her grandparents had attended college, unusual for their generation. On both sides, her family included educators, missionaries, and avid birders, and her paternal grandmother had been born in India and raised speaking Hindustani. This family history helped foster Betsy’s lifelong curiosity about and interest in the wider world.

Betsy grew up in Slingerlands, New York, the oldest of four children. She loved exploring the fields beside her house and picking wild strawberries. Her family spent her fourth-grade year in Allahabad, India, while her father, a professor of education, was on sabbatical. The Howes family returned to India for Betsy’s junior year of high school. These experiences gave her a broader understanding of the world and sparked an enduring interest in international studies.

She attended Tufts University, graduating in 1977. The highlight of her college years was her junior year in Paris, where she made lifelong friends and became proficient in French.

After college, Betsy worked at the World Affairs Council and the Japan Society of Boston, where she was admired for her competence and unfailing good sense. While studying Japanese at Harvard Extension School, a classmate insisted on introducing her to his close friend, Eric Pape. Betsy was initially skeptical, but Eric’s persistence won the day. She was warmly welcomed into Eric’s family and enjoyed spending summers in Duxbury, Massachusetts, at the Kelley/Rochester/Pape family homestead.

Betsy left the workforce to raise her two daughters, Katherine (Katy) and Jillian, born in 1987 and 1988. She loved being a mother and spent countless hours reading to her children, driving them to activities, and, above all, making sure they knew how deeply they were loved. A lifelong and devoted reader herself, Betsy had a particular love for Jane Austen’s novels, returning to them again and again over the years and passing that love on to her family.

When her daughters were well into elementary school, Betsy took classes to become a technical writer. The work suited her particular ability to distill complex information and communicate it clearly. She worked at Oracle, on software for clinical drug trials, for about 20 years before retiring in 2018.

Betsy lived with cancer from 2012 onward, and her illness became more difficult in 2022. She endured many treatments with characteristic stoicism, and her doctors often remarked on her quiet strength and resilience. These years also brought great joy, as Betsy welcomed four grandchildren between 2020 and 2024.

She told her daughters that she had lived a wonderful life and did not want them to be saddened by her death, though she wished she could have watched her grandchildren grow into teenagers and been a supportive presence during those years. On her final trip, to Washington, D.C., in August, she shared her lifelong love of the Narnia series by C. S. Lewis with her granddaughter Eleanor, reading to her all of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Betsy was preceded in death by her parents and parents-in-law. She is survived by her husband, Eric Kelley Pape; her siblings, Thomas, Margaret, and Sarah Howes; her daughters, Katherine (Katy) Pape Conyne and Jillian Howes Pape; their husbands, Zachary Conyne and Benjamin Jakubowski; and her four beloved grandchildren, Eleanor Louise Conyne, Owen Pape Jakubowski, Elise Lynn Conyne, and Arthur Pape Jakubowski.

Services will be held on November 14, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. at Second Church in Newton. Additional details will be available through Burke & Blackington Funeral Home.

Donations in Betsy’s memory to the Massachusetts Audubon Society or World Central Kitchen World Central Kitchen would be welcome.