Beatrice C. Cole, a longtime resident of Lompoc, died on Feb. 19, 2023, after a short battle with breast cancer. She was 90 years old.

Known as "Wootsie" to family members, Beatrice Cecelia Hunter was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1932, one of 11 children of Douglas Hunter and Laura Mae Connor. She became interested in cooking, and caring for others, and worked as an au pair in town. She later attended Ohio State University where she earned an LVN degree in nursing. After meeting Sylvester Cole, an U.S. Air Force airman and Korean war veteran in 1954, they married six months later.

They moved west to the San Francisco bay area where he worked for the Department of the Army as an aircraft mechanic, and she worked as a pediatric nurse and later as a staffer at the Presidio Army Base's daycare center. They became parents with the birth of their first child, Patrick. Their second child, Lisa, was born six years later. After the birth of Lisa, Beatrice retired from nursing and became a devoted homemaker.

In 1965, they moved south to Lompoc when it was known as the "Flower Seed Capital of the World". Known for her wit, kindness, and generosity, Beatrice engaged in part-time activities as a volunteer for local charities while raising her children. She also was a member of La Purisima Roman Catholic Church. Beatrice enjoyed 57 years of marriage until the passing of her husband in 2012.

She is survived by her two children, Patrick and Lisa; several nieces and nephews, including Nadine Maxey of Santa Maria; California; and Lauda Fields of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; and Keith Nicholson of Saint Louis, Missouri.

Her wake will be held at Starbuck-Lind Mortuary in Lompoc on Thursday, March 2, 2023, from 6-8 p.m. with a funeral Mass to be held at La Purisima Catholic Church on Friday, March 3, 2023, at 10 a.m. The burial ceremony will take place immediately after the Mass at Lompoc Evergreen Cemetery.