Elizabeth “Bette” Reinhartsen, 84, of San Jacinto, passed away Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008.

Bette was a newswoman for 30 years in Orange County on the staff of the Anaheim Bulletin and the Orange County Register.

She was with the first media contingent invited to the Western White House by President and Mrs. Nixon, and was the only reporter from Orange County assigned to the Apollo 11 Mission at Cape Kennedy and Houston.

She also covered the last voyage of the Queen Mary and the Tokyo Disneyland opening.

She started her journalism career in the late 1950s, working for the Idyllwild Town Crier under the tutelage of Ernie Maxwell.

Bette spent the last five years of her career in Orange County as public information officer for the Anaheim Union High School District. She retired to Hemet in 1989.

She was a member of the Hemet Elks Lodge Auxiliary and was elected to the Sierra Dawn Subdivision Board of Directors in 1998.

She is survived by a son, Lee Reinhartsen and wife Trudy of Burbank; a daughter, Hollis Reinhartsen of San Jacinto; a sister, Susan Zeigler and husband Don of Idyllwild; a granddaughter, Cheri Noel of Saugus; a grandson, David Evenson of Lafayette, Colo.; two great-granddaughters, Kirsten and Savannah; and one great-grandson, Tanus.