Elizabeth C. Stephenson

Mrs. Elizabeth C. "Betty" Stephenson, 98, died at 2 p.m. Friday in Trumbull Memorial Hospital.

Mrs. Stephenson will be remembered as the owner of the New Wave Beauty Salon, which flourished in downtown Warren between 1939 and 1963. She was born July 13, 1910, in Martins Ferry, a daughter of John and Bertha Yost. Her father led a crew that worked in steel mills, and the family moved several times because he refused to cross picket lines, choosing instead to move his crew whenever a strike stalled their work. They came to Cortland in 1923, to a farm home that was later among those that were submerged to create Mosquito Lake.

Betty graduated from Cortland High School in 1927 at the age of 16 and enrolled in the Cleveland Beauty School. That same year, she began her career as a beautician, in the Warner Company on North Park Avenue in Warren.

In 1938, she opened her own shop, over the S.S. Kresge building on Market Street, and soon added a Merle Norman Cosmetic Studio to the operation. The shop became popular with the downtown's "working women" � professional secretaries, court house employees, saleswomen in the retail shops around Court House Square � and she was asked to help organize the local chapter of the Business and Professional Women's Association. She counted among her friends the prominent professional and businessmen of Warren and their families.

"Aunt Betty's" shop was a popular gathering place for her many nieces and nephews and their friends, who enjoyed the freedom of the shop; they can recall running downstairs to the dime store for candy and sandwiches, taking the shop's bank deposit to the nearby bank where the friendly policeman stood guard at the corner, and, most especially, the fun of watching holiday parades from the privileged position of her shop windows.

She and her husband, Clifford Stephenson of Youngstown, whom she married in 1938, moved to Reno, Nev., in 1963. He passed away in 1980 and in 2001, at the age of 91, she moved to Kinsman to live with her niece, Jeanne Woodward, and her husband, attorney Cal Woodward. She became a member of the Ideal Club and enjoyed the companionship and care of club members and neighbors.

Besides her parents and husband, she was preceded in death by her three sisters, Mary Esposito, Grace Robinson, and Dorothy Irwin. She leaves many nieces and nephews, including Jeanne Woodward; Gary and James Irwin, both of Garrettsville, and John Noel of Deerfield; and great-nieces and great-nephews, including Robin DeWeese of Mineral Ridge and Christopher Woodward of Greenville, Pa.

There will be no service. In line with her wishes, cremation will take place. McFarland and Son Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Please visit www.mcfarlandfuneral.com to view this obituary and send condolences.