Resident of Walnut Creek

Elizabeth Frances “Betty” Selfa (née Mullen), passed away peacefully in the early morning hours of January 14 in Lafayette, California. She had marked her 89th birthday only a few months earlier.

Born October 5, 1935, Betty Mullen was the sixth of nine children of her Scottish immigrant parents, Thomas and Ellen Mullen. She outlived all of her siblings. Born and raised in Oakland, she attended St. Elizabeth’s school and church through her elementary and secondary years.

A popular student, she was voted homecoming queen in high school.

Heeding a vocation to become an educator like her maternal grandmother, she entered the College of the Holy Names in Oakland on a music scholarship in 1953. A first-generation college student, she worked her way through school as a waitress at Mel’s, a Dimond District cafe, where she met Albert J. Selfa, a son of Spanish immigrants, who worked at the Lucky’s grocery next door and ate lunch at Mel’s daily. Albert and Betty married in 1958, and remained married, as the engraving on his wedding ring said, “Para Siempre” (forever).

After graduating from Holy Names in 1957, Selfa went to work as an educator, specializing in teaching reading to elementary and high school students. She taught in Oakland public and parochial schools before dedicating nearly three decades to students in the San Lorenzo School District. She completed a Masters in Education at Holy Names Raskob Institute while working and raising three children. Wanting to give back to her alma mater, Betty and Al endowed a scholarship at Holy Names to benefit future students.

She lived in Castro Valley for more than 50 years, where she and Al raised their children. Awoman of deep faith, she served as a lay minister at her parish and a eucharistic minister to the elderly and infirm in Castro Valley.

She also volunteered her time organizing annual church festivals. Later in their lives, she and Al also worked with the church reform and social justice organization, Call toAction.

In retirement, Betty and her husband enjoyed attending performances at the San Francisco Symphony and the American Conservatory Theater, as well as exhibitions at area art museums. She traveled widely with Al, visiting children and grandchildren, as well as Betty’s relatives in Scotland. They visited places as varied as Oberammergau, Germany, where they experienced the famous passion play, and Costa Rica, where Betty attended a language school. The family celebrated Betty and Al’s 50th anniversary on an Alaska cruise.

Betty and Al moved to the Rossmoor senior living community in Walnut Creek in 2016. At Rossmoor, Betty was an active member of the choral group and continued to go to exercise classes.

Betty is survived by her husband, Albert, 90, her three adult children and their spouses: Lance Selfa and Carole Ramsden, of Chicago; Theresa Selfa and David Chandler, of Dewitt, N.Y. and Paul Selfa and Eve Spencer, of Lexington, MA. She was a loving mother to her children and a doting grandmother to Miles and Amelia Chandler and to Katherine Selfa.

A Mass of Christian Burial in Elizabeth’s honor will be celebrated at 12:30 pm, Saturday, March 1, at the Mausoleum of the Apostles, Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, 26320 Mission Blvd, Hayward. Interment at 1:30pm. A celebration of Elizabeth’s life will follow at the Bayview Ballroom, Stonebrae Country Club, 202 Country Club Drive, Hayward.

To honor Elizabeth’s memory, the family requests donations to St. Vincent de Paul of Alameda County, 2272 San Pablo Ave., Oakland, CA 94612.