Longtime Balboa Pavilion owner dies

Alicia Robinson

Community volunteer Bette Tozer, who along with her husband, Phil,

was a longtime owner of the Balboa Pavilion, died Friday after a

three-year battle with cancer. She was 81.

While some people complain about their illnesses, friends said

even losing her sight didn’t rob Tozer of her generous nature. She

helped raise money for Children’s Hospital of Orange County through

her work with the Cinderella Guild, and she contributed to Hoag

Hospital and belonged to a number of other organizations.

“Her house was always open to anybody that wanted to come over and

visit,” longtime friend Marnie Hemstreet said. “Any time anybody

needed something, you’d go to Bette, and she’d write you a check or

give it to you.”

Hemstreet knew Tozer from Orange High School, where the two were

among the school’s first-ever cheerleaders. Both women settled in

Newport -- Tozer moved there with her husband after his return from

World War II -- and they remained friends.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Tozer volunteered for CHOC,

raising money with bridge parties and other events, fellow volunteer

Alice Rosellini said.

“She just loved anything with children,” Rosellini said. “Bette

was always a person who was upbeat and loved people.”

Tozer stayed at home to raise her two children, Mitchell and

Matthew Tozer, and was later a devoted grandmother, friends said.

After 52 years of marriage, Phil Tozer died in 1995, and Bette

Tozer became president of the Balboa Pavilion Co. and spent a couple

of days a week on company business until her bout with cancer began.

Devoted to her family, Tozer backed up her husband in everything

he did, said Bob Black, vice president of the Balboa Pavilion Co.

“Bette was very instrumental in helping Phil put the Balboa

Pavilion together back in the late 1960s,” Black said.

The two installed the building’s now-famous lights in 1968 to help

illuminate it in the harbor. Less famously, they were quiet

contributors to several organizations and causes in the city.

Even when ill, Tozer enjoyed a good joke and was sometimes visited

by fishermen whom her husband had helped through business

partnerships, said neighbor Frank Peikert, who lived next door to the

Tozers for more than 15 years.

Last summer Tozer was so ill Peikert didn’t expect her to hang on

much longer, but later she seemed to be getting better, and she

always stayed positive, he said.

“I would be so angry and disgusted if I lost my sight,” Peikert

said. “She made the best [of her situation] and never complained

....She almost made you feel kind of good when you were there

cheering her up.”

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at

[email protected].