GUILDERLAND — Betty R. Van Hoesen kept her hands busy with crafts and her heart filled with generosity. She died on Monday, Feb. 23, 2015. She was 88.

“She was always smiling, always happy,” said her son, Ron Wallace. “She would do anything for you. She was a very nice person.

“She was a great mom,” he went on. “She did everything.”

Mr. Wallace pulled this example from his past: “When I was a teenager, before I had money for a car, she would let me take her car on dates or to the drive-in,” he recalled.

What his mother taught him, Mr. Wallace said, was “to be a good person.”

Mrs. Van Hoesen was the daughter of the late Harry and Helen Myers, and grew up in Preston Hollow. The oldest of three children, she had two brothers. Her mother was a busy homemaker and her father worked many jobs over his lifetime, ending his career as an on-the-road salesman for magazines.

Mrs. Van Hoesen was a graduate of Middleburgh High School. After graduating, she worked at an arsenal in Scotia, her son said, before getting a job as a typist for the Pathology Department at Albany Medical Center.

“She loved her work,” said Mr. Wallace, mostly because she enjoyed her co-workers, he said.

A religious woman, she was a faithful member of the Helderberg Reformed Church in Guilderland Center. She enjoyed making jewelry and selling it at church dinners, her son said.

Mrs. Van Hoesen was also an active member at the Altamont Seniors and enjoyed lunches and road trips with the group, her son said.

She was always “very busy,” her son said. “She drove till she was 87....She did a lot of crafts, keeping her hands busy,” he said, noting she liked to sew and knit blankets.

She met her second husband, Riley Van Hoesen, at a church strawberry social, her son said.

“Her and Riley liked to camp,” said Mr. Wallace. “They would go to Florida in the winter, “he said, living in their camper.

A generous person, Mrs. Van Hoesen donated to many causes, her son said, including the Wounded Warrior Project.

“She was a loving person who always said yes to whatever you needed,” her son concluded.

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She is survived by her sons, Ric Wallace and his wife, Scherry, of Guilderland, and Ron Wallace and his wife, Donna, of Knox; her brother, William Myers, of Florida; her grandchildren, Michelle Butler and her husband, Chuck, Terry Wallace and his wife, Leah, Kim Laviolette and Chris Albee, Nicole Prusinski, John Wallace and Karen Jamack, and Heather Horan; and her great-grandchildren, Kaitlyn, Jessica, Justin, Matthew, Michael, Alexandra, Preslie, Sarah, Jacob, Joshua, Matt, Robert, and Ashley.

Her beloved husband, Riley Van Hoesen, died before her.

Calling hours will be on Thursday, Feb. 26, from 5 to 7 p.m., at Fredendall Funeral Home at 199 Main St. in Altamont. A service will be held on Friday, Feb. 27, at 10 a.m. at the funeral home with interment to follow at Memory Gardens at 983 Watervliet-Shaker Rd., Albany 12205. Online condolences may be made at www.fredendallfuneralhome.com.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Helderberg Reformed Church, 435 Route 146, Guilderland Center, NY 12085 or to The Wounded Warrior Project, Post Office Box 758517, Topeka, KS 66675.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer