Betty Lou Gardiner

This is the moment¦ Hawaiian Wedding Song

Betty Lou Gardiner was born October 4, 1928, in Seattle WA. She died July 18, 2015, at home with her family in Bothell, WA. Betty was the second of five children born to Linus and Olga Leiren. Betty attended Ballard High School and studied at the University of Washington.

Before the end of WWII, she married, Coastguardsmen, Carl Milton Lantz. Together, they had six children. When this marriage ended, she met Kenneth Gardiner. They married in 1959. She called Kenny the love of her life. Betty and Kenny had two children. Kenny brought a son to the family. Together they raised nine kids, and as the children grew up and married, Betty and Kenny found themselves at the head of a huge extended family.

Betty was beautiful, confident, fun loving, and dauntless. Nothing would throw her. What most would call catastrophe, she called adventure. Her husband Kenny built and raced modified sprint cars at Sky Valley Raceway and elsewhere. She joined him in the work, wholeheartedly, and offered advice to others, Don't complain about your husband's hobby. Embrace it. They built new cars in the garage, designing them together. Betty was a racing journalist, reporting to the local news and helping to publish the racing annual. The kids were raised watching their dad race cars.

When the days of racing ended, Betty and Kenny bought the biggest cabin cruiser you can haul with a trailer and commenced to churn up the waters around Puget Sound.

Family was the center of Betty's life. She created celebrations for the achievements and passages of life. Preparation for holidays began weeks ahead, the Scandinavian way. She loved music and singing in the car, especially, with her sisters, Pat, Mary and Linda. Her kids and grandkids were always welcome and she showed them where the secret key was hidden.

After working for years at various jobs, from retail to childcare, Betty created a business of her own. She was the landscaper for the Kenmore Air Harbor and she had another group of clients she assisted with whatever was needed, from yard work to shopping. The business grew by word of mouth until she had all she could handle while preserving her freedom to set her own hours. Betty continued to work as a helper to the elderly, until she hit eighty. She often took her grandkids with her, and put them to work, too.

After Kenny Gardiner died in 1997, Betty said his spirit never left her side. He took care of her, she said. She left this life from the home where she lived since 1959. The day she died was their wedding anniversary and the house they built seems to thrum from its own beating heart.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Kenneth Gardiner, her parents, her brother, William Leiren and her sister, Patricia Kerns, children, Jon Lantz and Kimberly Brewster and her granddaughter, Karolina Lantz. She is survived by her children Sandra (Richard) Kleven, Douglas (Mary) Lantz, Rebecca (Robert) Struve, Gerrie Ellen Davis, Victoria Hansen, Kendra (John) Mejia, stepsons, Dennis Lantz and Lawrence Gardiner; and her sisters, Mary (Donald) Malins and Linda (Rick) Plancich. Her direct descendents include twenty five grandchildren Michael-Peter, Wayne, Joseph, and Tyler Kleven, Douglas Lantz, Elizabeth Cantu, Chelsea Hamilton, Nicholas and Jason Lantz, Corey Struve, Kate Bothke-Morgan, Thomas Struve, Skyler, Sean and Scott Davis, Michael, Jenifer and Jeffery Brewster, Jessica Davis, Michelle Kilmer, Rebecca and Rachel Hansen, Kenneth Mejia, Samantha Kempf, and John Mejia. There are fifteen great grandchildren. So far.

Photo by Michael Kleven