Elizabeth Brinton Kent Van Alen, 104, shop owner, volunteer

Elizabeth Brinton Kent Van Alen, 104, a shop owner and longtime volunteer in the Philadelphia area, died Sunday, Sept. 6, of causes related to aging at Dunwoody Village, Newtown Square.

Before moving to Palm Beach, Fla., in 1990, Mrs. Van Alen was a longtime resident of Willistown, Chester County. She also spent time each year in Maine.

Known as Betty, Mrs. Van Alen came from a famous family. She was the daughter of the inventor and radio manufacturing pioneer A. Atwater Kent and his wife, Mabel Lucas Kent. The Atwater Kent Museum for Philadelphia History that he helped create in 1938 still bears his name.

In 1930, Mrs. Van Alen was presented to King George V of England at the Court of St. James's.

A year later, she married into another prominent family. Her husband was William L. Van Alen , an architect, sportsman, and philanthropist who for many years was the chairman of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

The two loved to travel, especially to Europe. Their appreciation of European gardens and landscapes inspired them to establish the Van Alen Traveling Fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania. The fellowships have enabled two students in the departments of architecture and landscape architecture to travel to Europe every summer since 1985.

The Van Alens celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in 2001 with a family gathering in Bar Harbor, Maine, where they had been married. He died in 2003 at age 94 at the couple's Palm Beach home.

During World War II, Mrs. Van Alen was the president of the Stage Door Canteen in Philadelphia, serving members of the armed forces with coffee, doughnuts, and friendly conversation as they passed through the city on their way to new assignments.

In the 1960s, she founded and operated the successful Pear Tree shop in Bryn Mawr. The shop was highly regarded as an excellent source of home furnishings.

Mrs. Van Alen was a board member of the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, the Temple of Understanding in Washington, the Philadelphia Recreation Association, the National Recreation Association, and the International Recreation Association.

In a written tribute, her relatives described Mrs. Van Alen as "the magnetic center of her family. She was warm and supportive and was admired for her ever-present loving nature which characterized her personality, even during the difficulties of old age."

She is survived by a son, James L. Van Alen; a daughter, Cassandra Ludington; nine grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren. Her elder son, William L. Van Alen Jr., died in 2010.

A memorial service is to be at 2:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 16, at St. David's Episcopal Church, 753 S. Valley Forge Rd., Wayne. Interment is private.

Donations may be made to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia via www.chop.edu/giving/ways-to-give, or to the Willistown Conservation Trust via http://www.wctrust.org/?page_id=118.

bcook@phillynews.com

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