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Letter to the editor

Ready to help others, she made light of her own hard life

By ANDREW MEACHAM, Times Staff Writer
Published November 6, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT Lena Biggerstaff died on Tuesday, four days after her 85th birthday. She suffered from Alzheimer's disease. [Handout photo]

As a child, Lena Biggerstaff learned to survive. As an adult, she tried to pass that skill on to others.

In rural Indiana, she found two sets of adoptive parents for two children whose parents could not afford to keep them. And after moving to St. Petersburg in the 1980s, Ms. Biggerstaff gave away boxes of linens, kitchenware and food to a woman who lost her home in a fire.

Ms. Biggerstaff died on Tuesday, four days after her 85th birthday. She suffered from Alzheimer's disease.

Ms. Biggerstaff took hardship in stride. She grew up in rural Indiana, one of a vegetable farmer's 13 children. She walked to school, often barefoot. After the eighth grade, with high school too far away to walk, she dropped out.

At 18, she met a man with nothing and fell in love. Raleigh Biggerstaff was eight years her senior. He worked for the railroad.

They decided to marry. Ms. Biggerstaff didn't feel like explaining her decision to wed to her parents, so they eloped.

Raleigh Biggerstaff knew how to fix wagons, cars, televisions, whatever. Ms. Biggerstaff let her husband make the big decisions, which worked out fine. Then, in 1986, he died.

Ms. Biggerstaff loved bingo, bowling and a good joke. She brought up three children, juggled jobs and cooking, and listened to Patsy Cline's music whenever she could.

She lavished gifts on her grandchildren, cooked chicken with homemade noodles at family dinners, and served up a lemon meringue pie with just the right balance between tart and sweet.

She had simple tastes but loved jewelry. "It didn't matter if it was real or not, as long as it sparkled," said daughter Janet Whysong, 65.

Ms. Biggerstaff didn't talk much about politics or religion, her family said. But she let a Baptist minister dunk her in a lake at age 50. Later, she voted for Bill Clinton twice, because he was good looking.

In her life, she worked as a waitress, railroad crossing guard, hairdresser, tropical fish store owner and saleswoman for Avon and Tupperware products.

In 1971, she sold more Tupperware than anyone in the country. She won a gold Cadillac and a trip to Disney World on the park's opening day.

When Raleigh died in 1986, Ms. Biggerstaff spent lots of time with her son, Jim, learning about checkbooks, money and other necessities her husband had always handled.

She played bingo seven days a week, more than 20 cards a round, and won her share of pots, her daughter said.

As her Alzheimer's worsened, the family intervened to stop Ms. Biggerstaff from driving. They eventually moved her to an assisted living facility.

Her spirit seemed to wane in recent weeks, said her son, Jim, 67.

"We all told her, 'Your birthday is coming,'" he said. "She waited and waited, and then when her birthday came, she just quit."

Lena Biggerstaff

Born: Oct. 26, 1922

Died: Oct. 30, 2007

Survivors: Daughters Jan (Danny) and Janet Mae (Philip); a son, Jim (Judith); sisters Pauline Johnson, Eva Mae Beddling and Betty Green; numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren.

Services: The family on Monday had a funeral at Gee & Sorenson Funeral Home.

[Last modified November 5, 2007, 22:07:12]