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Longtime Burger Hut owner Betty Lewis dies at age 95

Betty Lewis

Betty Lewis, the longtime owner of the Burger Hut restaurant, died Sunday.

Lewis, 95, of Butler Township died at Concordia Lutheran Ministries.

“It’s just amazing the things this woman did with her life,” said her son, Mark Lewis.

Lewis and her three sons bought the Burger Hut in 1979. Mark Lewis said working with his mother was great and said she was very strong-willed.

“It was great,” he said. “She taught me so much about life.”

Lewis was born in Grove City in 1920. She graduated from Grove City High School and later from Grove City College with a degree in business.

Her initial work involved selling cosmetics. Eventually, the company wanted her to move to New York and be a corporate vice president, but Lewis declined.

Following that, she became a broker with Key Realty in Butler. Mark Lewis said his mother was the first female broker in Western Pennsylvania.

She came to own the Burger Hut after the owner told her he intended to sell the restaurant.

Over the years, the family expanded and built Burger Hut 2 on New Castle Road in Butler Township. At one point, the family owned Burger Hut locations in Zelienople and Memorial Park in Butler. They also had a traveling Burger Hut cart to serve food at events.

She stopped working day-to-day at the restaurant about five years ago. The business will stay in the family.

Judy Wilson of Center Township was friends with Lewis and assisted with the Burger Hut’s finances in the mid-2000s.

“She was very caring; very giving,” Wilson said.

She said Lewis had a “gift room” in her house, and anyone who visited could get a gift from the room. She also said Lewis enjoyed working in her garden.

Lewis was involved with the Butler Little Theatre, the Butler County Chamber of Commerce and the state and county boards of Realtors. She also enjoyed traveling, enough to be on the first flight of the Concorde in the 1970s and to sail on the Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner.

Chuck Swidzinski, a Realtor with Berkshire Hathaway in Butler Township, met Betty through a mutual friend. He said she was a very good dresser whose outfits always matched. He said she liked to tell people that “a firm handshake was a good handshake,” and would demonstrate how to give a good handshake.

He said she really enjoyed traveling, and recalled going with her to see “The Lion King” in Toronto.

“She was just a fun-loving person,” Swidzinski said.

In addition to all of this, she was an avid golfer. Her son said she was a top scorer in the Armco Country Club’s women’s league.

“She definitely was a big golfer,” Mark Lewis said.

About 40 years ago, she kept score for golfer Arnold Palmer when he played at Oak Hills. In the 1950s, she and her husband were golfing in a group behind President Dwight Eisenhower. Mark Lewis said his mother got his autograph.

“If there was something she wanted, she did it,” Mark Lewis said.

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