Elizabeth Suzanne Gavian (Halen)

Elizabeth was born on Thanksgiving Day of 1932 in the rural central California town of Lindsay to Surpoohe and Garabed Gavian. The Thanksgiving turkey got left on the barbeque that year. She grew up on the family ranch near Lindsay and lived there until she completed her Junior year of high school at Lindsay High School.

She moved to Visalia, the largest city in Tulare County for her Senior year of high school. Elizabeth continued her education at College of the Sequoias in Visalia. Shortly after finishing her formal education at COS, Elizabeth went to work for the Tulare County Health Department as a Clerk/Typist.

It was typical of the women of her time to marry and raise a family. Elizabeth was a typical woman of her time. She met and married a handsome young Public Health Sanitarian at the Tulare County Health Department named Walter Halen.

As was also typical of the time, Elizabeth (Betty) quit working for money and went to work raising two children that came along after two miscarriages at the start of her marriage to Walter. First came a boy, Bruce born in April of 1956, followed 13 months later by a daughter, Susan.

Caring for two babies in diapers was very challenging. Elizabeth struggled with staying mentally healthy. With the help of her mother, Surpoohe, she made through the difficult early years of child rearing. Walter was the provider and loving husband. But, much of the day-to-day child raising was done by Betty. She worked in PTA all through Bruce and Susan’s childhoods and would eventually become the District PTA President.

Once her children were through school and on their own ways in life, Elizabeth continued a life of dedicated service to family and community. She volunteered for several years with our local Congressman, Cal Dooley and at the Well Baby Clinic. For many years, Betty and Walter’s garage became a polling place for voting in the elections central to the core tenets of Democracy.

Later, that same garage would become a distribution site for the Visalia Senior Gleaners program. The Gleaners would go to the yards of Visalians and pick excess fruit and then bring it to distribution sites where it was bagged and prepared for pick-up by senior citizens.

Elizabeth would struggle with mental health issues in later life, but her final two years at Alma Via Assisted Living in Camarillo, California were wonderful years for her and Walt. She received competent and loving care and she flourished while at Alma Via. Susan was a rock in seeing to regular visits and outings from her home in nearby Oxnard.

Walter passed away in March of 2017 at 95. Elizabeth lived until the following February. She is buried in Visalia with Walter, her husband of over 60 years in Visalia.

Thanks, Mom.