Elizabeth `Betty' Jane Lunz, 78, Longtime Tukwila Sewer Official

Sewers held no terrors for Elizabeth "Betty" Jane Lunz: For 25 years she was the elected sewer commissioner in Tukwila, overseeing waste disposal for thousands.

"She was the first elected woman sewer commissioner in the United States," said her daughter, Leone McMullen of Seattle. "She was active in Democratic politics and was always managing somebody's campaign, like Gov. (Albert) Rosellini or (Sen. Henry) `Scoop' Jackson."

"Then something happened in the mid-1960s. Tukwila was going from septic tanks to sewers. It was going to cost too much . . . so she ran.

"It was a dirty campaign. These guys didn't want her in. But she was tenacious, campaigned door-to-door, and did all these grass-roots things to get elected. She was still on the board when she died."

"If she thought something was right or needed doing, she wouldn't back down," said her daughter.

Mrs. Lunz died of a blood disorder June 24 while tending her Tukwila flower garden. She was 78.

Born in Gruver, Iowa, she learned to be tough growing up Catholic in an Iowa town where the Ku Klux Klan shouted at her as her grandfather walked her to school. "The KKK hated you for being Jewish or Catholic," her daughter said.

Mrs. Lunz graduated from Mankato Teachers College in Minnesota and taught in a one-room schoolhouse in the early 1930s. Later, she liked to tell of standing up to big, Scandinavian farm boys despite her 5-foot height.

A Tukwila resident for nearly 50 years, Mrs. Lunz worked as a court clerk and at a pottery firm. She also served on the Metro Council, and helped get Foster Municipal Pool built, along with South Central School District's first kindergarten.

"She studied sewer issues extensively," said her son, James Lunz of Seattle. "If they were putting in a pumping station, she knew why it should be 50 horsepower and not 25.

"When Boeing built their office where the Duwamish Drive-In was, they wouldn't say how many people would be there. But she got them to reveal it so the station would have adequate capacity. Not many people can stand up to Boeing."

Mrs. Lunz's other survivors include her children, John Lunz of Renton, Catherine Bailey and David Lunz of Plano, Tex., and Teresa Lehmbeck, SeaTac; sister, Jean Hanrahan of Minnesota; brother, John Reisinger of Missouri; and nine grandchildren. Her husband of 43 years, Edwin Lunz, died in 1982.

A funeral Mass was celebrated. Remembrances may go to St. Thomas Catholic Church - Outreach, 4415 S. 140th St., Tukwila, WA, 98168.