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https://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/16/nyregion/l-no-headline-233161.html

Oct. 16, 1983

State Contest Winner Of '37 Is Recalled The Oct. 2 article about Suzette Charles, the first runner-up in the Miss America contest, referred to Bette Cooper, the last winner from New Jersey. It indicated that Miss Cooper came from Bertrand Island in Morris County.

That was in 1937. I covered the competition at which Miss Cooper won the Miss North Jersey title, which was followed by her winning the Miss New Jersey crown. (I was, in fact, one of the judges at the Miss North New Jersey contest at Bertrand Island, which is an amusement park, not a town, on Lake Hopatcong.)

If memory serves me correctly, Miss Cooper then lived in Hackettstown, where her parents lived. She confounded the Atlantic City pageant officials by not returning for the after-contest festivities. Later, she attended Centenary College in Hackettstown. JAMES M. MACFARLAND Mount Tabor ,

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