Funeral Services For Beloved Livermore Elementary School Teacher

LIVERMORE, CA — Elizabeth S. Holdener, 92, passed peacefully on Monday, Feb. 27, 2017 at San Ramon Hospital in San Ramon, Calif. She was born Feb. 6, 1925 in King, Wisc., to Harriet and Winford Suites. Her family later moved from Wisconsin to Livermore in seventh grade when her father took a job as a pharmacist.

She was a 1943 graduate of Livermore High School. Betty later graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a degree in education. She married Carl Holdener on April 4, 1946 in Livermore where they later raised three children. The Holdener family owned and operated the Valley Dairy on Stanley Blvd. after purchasing it from the Holm Family in 1931.

The Valley Dairy delivered milk to homes in the Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin and Sunol area. In 1956, the dairy became the Holdener Drive-In Dairy which allowed customers to drive through to pick up their dairy products. The Holdener Drive-In Dairy operated successfully for more than 20 years. Carl and Betty moved the family and cows to Tracy in 1965.

They created Holdener Dairy Farm in order to expand their herd to keep up with the growing communities, as well as their farming operation. Carl and Betty later moved to Union Island in Stockton to continue building their farming operation with their family. After Carl passed in 2004, life-long friend and Livermore resident Keith Anderson became her best friend and travel companion.

The duo traveled up and down the state attending catering events with her daughter Marge, as well as any family functions together. Betty’s family is extremely grateful to have had Keith by her side as a friendly companion for more than 10 years. Betty lived on the ranch from 1997 until May of 2016 where she later moved into Rosewood Gardens in Livermore, which is situated on the former Holdener Dairy property.Betty had an extraordinary passion for teaching and watching her students succeed.

Throughout her 35+ years of teaching grammar school in Livermore, she touched hundreds, if not a thousand students’ lives. A true social butterfly, she attended weekly worship at Asbury Methodist Church in Livermore, visited the bowling alley whenever she could, and kept up with her friends from across the country on the phone.

Betty possessed the ability to charm whoever had the chance to meet her and you always left her presence with a smile. She is survived by her three children, Claudia (Less) Guthrie, 70, Marjorie (Ed) Bright, 68, and Robert (Cecilia), 53, as well as her seven grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren. She is succeeded in death by her sister Anne Healy of Red Bluff, and survived by her brother Gordon Suites of Santa Rosa, and sister Jean Berry of Walnut Creek.

A viewing service is scheduled for 9 a.m., Wed., March 8, 2017, with a funeral service at 11 a.m. at Callaghan Mortuary; 3833 East Avenue, Livermore, Calif., 94550. She will be laid to rest next to Carl at Memory Gardens Cemetery next to Callaghan Mortuary following the service.

Submitted by Holdener family

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