ELIZABETH E. LANKFORD

Longtime Alaskan Elizabeth “Betty” Lankford, 84, died peacefully with family members at her side on Dec. 26, 2009, in hospice care in Greenville, S.C.

Betty Mitchell was born Aug. 25, 1925, and moved to Alaska with her mother in 1934. She attended Anchorage High School and was a contestant for Miss Fur Rendezvous in 1941. As a teenager, Betty waited tables in her mother’s café, Mom’s Lucky Shot Diner on D Street, where members of the Flying Tigers regaled her with their adventures. When she was 16, Betty took flying lessons. She often ran to Lake Spenard so she could swim during her break.

Betty met her husband, Lloyd Lankford, when she waited on him in the café. Lloyd often told the story of meeting Betty for the first time. He told his buddy, “I’m gonna marry that woman.”

Betty and Lloyd did marry in 1947, and in 1952 opened Sterling Service, a Standard Oil service station they built at the intersection of the Seward Highway and Fireweed Lane. In 1956, they became one of the first families to homestead near the railroad’s Montana Station. The railroad was the only access to the area until 1965, when the Parks Highway made Montana Creek accessible by road. Lloyd built the one-lane roads that connected the early homesteaders, and the Lankford home was known fondly as “Grand Central Station.” Since Betty and Lloyd had one of the only television sets in 1957, it was not unusual for families to come over on Friday and Saturday nights to watch the “cowboy shows.”

Betty was one of the founding members of the Montana Mother’s Club, the community’s first social organization. She pounded nails alongside the men who built the community’s first one-room territorial grade school in 1958 and was there to welcome the teacher the new State of Alaska provided when it opened in 1959. Betty maintained a huge garden and loved to fish for silver and king salmon at Montana Creek. She farmed, baled hay, dug potatoes and helped raise horses, cattle, sheep and chickens.

Betty moved to Easley, S.C., in May 2009 to spend the rest of her life with her youngest son, Scott, and his family.

She is survived by her children and their spouses, Scott and Angela Lankford of Pickens, S.C., Steve and Patricia Lankford of Anchorage, Sheila Lankford and Joe Mathis of Anchorage; grandchildren Lucas and Sebastian Lankford of Anchorage, Allie (Jaidyn Allysandra) and Aidyn Lankford of S.C., Kate Lankford of Craig; and dearest friends Faye and “Punch” Panichello of Anchorage.