Elizabeth Jane Kitchen

Elizabeth “Betty” (Mattos) Kitchen, 90, died peacefully on December 16th, 2024. Born Elizabeth Jane Mattos on July 19, 1934, in Martinez, CA, to Joseph and Fannie (Shaw) Mattos. Betty graduated from Mt. Diablo High School in 1952 and began her life of travel and adventure, working as an international flight attendant with routes through New York, Hawaii and Japan.

In 1957, Betty married John Peter Nelson and had two children, Daniel and Jessica. In 1963, she remarried Charlie Kitchen and blended their families, including his daughter Anita Kitchen, in their San Leandro, CA home. There she celebrated holidays and gatherings with a large extended family who remember her as always humble, elegant and with a good sense of humor. Upon retirement in the 1980s, Betty and Charlie traveled extensively across the United States for years before finally settling in Manteca, CA.

Betty lived a full life that included travels and outdoor activities like camping and water skiing with family, dancing, deep sea fishing and sports. She had many artistic talents, creating projects in textiles, mosaics and painting. But it was her gatherings with family that she most enjoyed, always with full tables of home cooked meals and much laughter. She will be dearly missed by her many nieces and nephews, who remember her as a good listener and always supportive of their dreams, and by her children, who inherited her creativity and wanderlust.

Betty lived most of her life in her home state of California, but moved to Kansas City, MO, in 2020 to be near family.

She is preceded in death by her husband Charlie Kitchen, step-daughter Anita Kitchen, her sisters Edith (Mattos) Fischer, Marie “Peggy” (Mattos) Camacho, brothers Irvin Mattos, James Mattos and Joseph Mattos.

Betty is survived by her daughter Jessica Livingston, son Daniel Nelson and his wife Linda, sister Anna (Mattos) Bickford and brother Bill Mattos. She also leaves behind grandchildren Shelly (Wilson) Eggers and James Wilson, five great-grandchildren and dozens of nieces and nephews.

In accordance with her wishes, there will be no formal service. Loved ones are encouraged to remember her for a life well lived. Betty chose to have her cremains scattered across the Rocky Mountains.

“And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.” Kahlil Gibran

Please click on the link below to view a tribute slideshow honoring Betty's life through photos.

https://youtu.be/1npwVRk6DDI