Queens Woman, 75, Hopped City Cab To Arizona Retirement Home
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Betty Matas, a Queens woman who made national headlines in April when she and her husband took a cross-country taxi ride to their new retirement home in Sedona, Ariz., died Monday. She was 75 and had recently come down with pneumonia.
The two hired the cab to drive them the entire way to spare their two cats from a trip by airplane cargo hold. Both spent their lives in the New York City area and never learned to drive.
The Matas, their two cats — Pretty Face and Cleopatra — left their Queens neighborhood April 10 and arrived in Sedona almost a week later.
Bob Matas, a former audio and video engineer for advertising agencies, said he would keep taking care of both cats and that they were doing well.
Betty Matas was born August 5, 1932, in Queens, and worked for 38 years as an executive secretary to the president of Klemptner Advertising.
Bob Matas will remain in Sedona. He said his wife’s charm and personality helped them make friends in the short time they’ve lived there.
Although she had health problems before moving, the couple was happy about making the 2,500-mile journey.
“She never regretted it. That was her last year and that’s what she really wanted to do,” Bob Matas said.
