What a ride: woman, 82, inducted into Hall of Fame

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What a life this woman has had!! She proves that you don't have to get old just because you get older. Maybe I wouldn't have done the things she's done (despite my own crop of red hair!), but I sure do admire her for being strong-willed enough to do it herself!! http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/1-08132008-1576213.html She reminds me a bit of my grandmother who was a working mother when mothers didn't work if they had husbands who did. She was a member of the New Jersey branch of Telephone Pioneers of America, a volunteer group consisting then of Bell Telephone employees and retirees. She began her career with Bell Telephone when there was row after row of telephone operators connecting calls while their supervisors took to roller skating in order to be able to more quickly attend to the department's needs. She actually ran away when she learned she was pregnant with my father because she wasn't married and did not want his father to feel obligated to marry her just because she was pregnant. This was in 1922!! She was 19. Very independent and forward thinking, she felt that since my grandfather wasn't the only one there at the time of conception, she shared equal responsibility in dealing with it. Obviously, they did get married because my grandfather begged my great-grandparents to tell him where she was and then went and brought her home to marry him. But, she was a staunchly independent woman who wasn't about to let any man anywhere prevent her from doing what she wanted. She loved my grandfather fiercely (once telling my mother she'd "eat sh*t for that man" if he asked her ), but when she wanted to travel out of the country to see us in Venezuela and my aunt in Germany, she didn't allow his unwillingness to fly to stop her. She went without him. So, did or do you have anyone in your life who was a bit of a maverick and non-traditionalist like Betty here was and is? Did or do you admire her? Tell us all about her.