Elizabeth (Betty) Salamone

Meet Betty Salamone. Lived to 101. Truly one of the greatest generation. She was born to Hungarian immigrants, lost her father at age 9 to black lung from coal mining, and helped her mother raise six siblings through the Depression. She worked hard from the day she could hold a hoe, quit school at eighth grade, and continued to work to support her family through WWII as a rivet bucker at Scott Field. After the war she met her future husband at a union meeting for the stove plant. Much to their families' dismay (she was Hungarian! He was Sicilian!) they married, moved to Texas, and raised 4 daughters to be the first generation to go to college. She got her GED at 60. She was wicked smart especially with numbers, sewed, knitted, crocheted, taught her girls to play pinochle, cooked lovely meals, queen of the altar society, loved sports, loved her dogs, loved pretty things, loved nickel slots, loved seeing new things, loved being alive until one day she wasn't. You would have liked her.