Betty Jane Zimmerman

Betty Jane Zimmerman, 87, died Aug. 27, 2011, at the Palmer Pioneers and Veterans Home. She had been a resident of the home for about 11 years and suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.

The 16th of 17 children, Betty was born Regina Brantner on Aug. 31, 1923, in Jerome, Idaho, to Russian immigrants Daniel and Regina Brantner. She was orphaned at the age of 4 and adopted by Jack and Merle Schwartz of Boise, Idaho, who named her Betty Jane and raised her as an only child.

Betty married Arthur Herman Zimmerman July 25, 1940, in Wells, Nev., and together they had five children: Connie Ann, Delores Jean, Arthur Dwayne and the twins, Jean Kay and Eileen Fay.

Art was an employee of Morrison and Knudson, and in 1953 he was transferred to Anchorage as foreman in the company’s shop overseeing manufacturing of crates to ship delicate radar equipment used in the White Alice Project (an early warning radar system put in place during the Cold War; radar sites along the Arctic Circle). The family moved to the Anchorage area and eventually homesteaded 140 acres near Knik, three miles from the Nike site.

Betty worked for the Anchorage School District as a janitor and then as a school secretary before they homesteaded. Art and Betty were the owners of Mac’s Grocery and Liquor Store in Eagle River and operated it from 1960 to 1962.

The family moved back to Idaho in 1962. Betty and Art decided they wanted to spend the rest of their lives in Alaska in 1976, when they moved back to the Palmer area. They had been married for 47 years when Art died in 1987. Betty worked at Matanuska Valley Credit Union and the Valley Women’s Resource Center before she retired.

One of Betty’s greatest accomplishments (besides raising her family) was locating her siblings.

Preceding her in death were her siblings; husband, Art; daughter, Connie; and her longtime companion, Ted Palen.

Surviving are her children, Delores (Dee) Schroeder of Phillips, Neb., Arthur Dwayne (Butch) Zimmerman of St. Maries, Idaho, Jean Williams of Palmer and Eileen Fleming of St. Maries, Idaho; 20 grandchildren; 26 great-grandchildren; and two great-great grandchildren.

“Betty will be remembered for her sense of humor, the twinkle in her eyes, the way she could break out in song and dance at any given moment and the love she held for her family and friends. She is missed,” her family wrote.