LACONIA --- Elizabeth (known by Widge or Betty) Widger Arms died on Sunday, June 1, 2025.
She was born in Lynn, MA on November 12, 1924, the daughter of Dorothy Harnden Widger and William Knowlton Widger and sister of the late William Widger Jr.
She attended Dean Academy and Bates College, graduating in 1946. After graduate study at Case Western Reserve, she married Richard Philip Arms. They lived in Marblehead MA, where their daughter Judith was born, and then in Cincinnati OH, where their son Bradley was born.
In Cincinnati, she developed a serious interest in the natural world, especially birds, and volunteered at the Cincinnati Nature Center. After moving back to Massachusetts, she was a part- time teacher and naturalist at Endicott Center and a volunteer at the Ipswich River Wildlife Center, both part of Mass Audubon.
Betty spent her childhood summers in Gilmanton Iron Works, NH, at Crystal Lake where her family has had summer homes since 1901. In 1990, she and Dick retired to a year-round home on the site of her parents’ camp. She was active in the Gilmanton Garden Club, the Gilmanton Historical Society, and NH Audubon.
She wrote The Dear Old Lake, a memoir of life at the lake for her family and several other lake “first families.” She was coauthor of Beyond the Classroom and of Ten for the Pond, a book of poems, both published by the Mass Audubon.
Predeceased by her son in 2002 and her husband in 2004, Betty leaves daughter, Judith Arms, of Seattle, WA; grandson Noah Sorscher, of Seattle, WA; granddaughter, Sarah Sorscher; and Sarah’s children: Wiley, Rose, and Emmett Hedrick, of Silver Spring, MD.
A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, August 2, 2025, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at 81 Pine Circle, Gilmanton Iron Works NH. Please RSVP to [email protected].
Memorial contributions may be made to the Gilmanton Year-Round Library, 1385 NH 140, Gilmanton IW, NH 03837 or the Loon Preservation Committee, PO Box 604, Moultonborough, NH 03254.
Wilkinson-Beane-Simoneau-Paquette Funeral Home & Cremation Services/603Cremations.com, 164 Pleasant St., Laconia, NH, 03246, is assisting the family with arrangements. For more information and an online memorial, please visit wilkinsonbeane.com.