Betty Hayenga

Betty Hayenga, 87, died March 20, 2008, at Providence Horizon House due to complications of a stroke. Her family gathered at her bedside for her final days.
A memorial service will be this summer in her hometown of George, Iowa.
Betty was born July 18, 1920, to Fred and Elsie Elfline in Magnet, Neb., and grew up in George. She was a captain in the Women's Army Corps for almost five years during World War II. After the war, she married Ralph Hayenga and together they raised four children while living first in Windom, Minn., and then in St. Paul, Minn.
Betty became very active in Democratic politics. She worked on Hubert Humphrey's campaigns for the Senate and the presidency and ran his Minneapolis office while he was vice president. She was the first woman to run for statewide office in Minnesota when she ran for state auditor on the 1966 DFL ticket. She worked in the Minnesota House of Representatives for more than 20 years and was proud to have attended three Democratic national conventions. In 1962, she was appointed to the National Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Service by President John F. Kennedy and served as its national chair in 1965.
Her husband was vice president of Honeymead Grain Co. and served as president of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange.
Betty and Ralph retired to Mesa, Ariz., in 1980 and enjoyed spending summers between Minnesota and Alaska visiting friends, family and grandchildren. After her husband's death in 1995, Betty returned to Minnesota to live near friends and her son Jim and his wife, Joy.
She moved to Anchorage in March 2007 and lived at Providence Horizon House in Spruce Cottage. Her family would like to thank the wonderful staff at Spruce Cottage for making her last year a great year.
She played bingo and bunco, cheered others on at bowling and singing and enjoyed herself immensely.
She is survived by her daughters, Jana Hayenga of Anchorage, and Jo and her husband, Peter Michalski, of Anchorage; sons, Jim and his wife, Joy Hayenga, of Lakeville, Minn., and Jeff Hayenga and his partner, Michael Bellanger, of New York City; grandsons, Matthew Michalski of Seattle, and Nathan Michalski and his wife, Jessica Johnson, of Washington, D.C.; granddaughter, Ellie Millen of Salem, Ore.; and sisters, Jean Lewis of Berkeley, Calif., and Marilyn Gieske of Winona, Minn.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Ralph Hayenga; and sister, Delores Lenko.
Arrangements are with Evergreen Memorial Chapel.