Kirkland activist brought style to downtown shop

Betty Lightfeldt was so beloved by fellow Kirkland business owners that they will gather in front of her shop at the corner of Lake Street and Kirkland Avenue today for a brief remembrance service for the 82-year-old businesswoman and downtown activist.

Mrs. Lightfeldt, founder of Betty's Apparel, died Sunday (April 27) of a head injury at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. She fell at home April 17 and never regained consciousness.

Several hundred balloons in her favorite colors of aqua, teal and coral will be given to merchants to put by their front doors.

"It's our way of paying tribute to Betty," said Jeff Fritz, owner of Vivere Bene, the antique and home-furnishings store next door to Betty's Apparel, and an organizer of today's 2 p.m. memorial. "We've lost someone important to us."

Mrs. Lightfeldt would have appreciated the storefronts lined with balloons because she always did things with flair, friends and family said. But her efforts also were done with a seriousness of purpose.

"Betty brought elegance and style and an unflappable commitment to downtown," said Mayor Larry Springer. "You can't talk much about downtown without finding a Lightfeldt fingerprint over it."

One Lightfeldt project was the free parking.

Mrs. Lightfeldt and her husband, Bob, led the drive to turn a muddy field into today's public parking area by Marina Park. Recognizing that parking was key to the vitality of Kirkland's commercial core, they rallied other business owners and jointly purchased the parking lot at the corner of Central Way and Lake Street. Later they bought out the partners and eventually sold the lot to the city.

Chuck Morgan, publisher of Kirkland's former weekly newspaper, said Mrs. Lightfeldt helped found the Creative Arts League (Kirkland Art Center) and also helped bring outdoor musical entertainment to downtown decades before it became popular.

"She was an original Kirkland treasure," said former Kirkland Mayor Doris Cooper. "Betty was generous with her time, volunteering for anything to help Kirkland."

The Lightfeldts moved to the Eastside in 1954. He worked for Boeing, and she began her retail career in a local jewelry store. When it closed, the Lightfeldts turned a former bank building into the storefront for Betty's Apparel, which opened in 1963. At one point Betty's was a small chain with stores in Juanita Village, Totem Lake and Factoria shopping centers.

"She also opened the first sportswear shop for women in Kirkland," said her daughter, Karen. "That was at the pivotal point when women were just beginning to wear pantsuits and the only place you could get them here was at her shop."

Karen Lightfeldt said her mother reveled in serving elegant family dinners and entertaining friends.

"My mother always did it with style," she said. "Sometimes we had to wear extraordinary hats to dinner, she decorated the table and there were always things at each place setting. We never knew what to expect."

The Lightfeldts received a Peter Kirk Business Excellence Award from the Kirkland Chamber of Commerce in 2002 and were honored by the Kirkland Rotary Club in 1999 for their community service.

Mrs. Lightfeldt was born Feb. 8, 1921, in Oxnard, Calif., and was a graduate of Inglewood High School, Inglewood, Calif. She and her husband were married Sept. 22, 1939.

In addition to her husband and daughter, she is survived by son Lorn of Gig Harbor, Pierce County; sisters Kathy Reud of Sebastopol, Calif., Dorothy Teel of Cypress, Calif., and Audra Probasco of Henderson, Nev.; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be at Washington Cathedral, 12300 Woodinville-Redmond Road N.E., Redmond, at 2 p.m. Sunday. Memorials may be made to the Aid Car Fund, Kirkland Fire Department, 123 Fifth Ave., Kirkland, WA 98033.

Sherry Grindeland: 206-515-5633 or sgrindeland@seattletimes.com