Betty Eliassen

Betty June Pendergrass (86) was born on October 7, 1938, and died on November 12, 2024. She was born in Knoxville,TN to Webster and Mildred (Carter) Pendergrass. She lived in Knoxville until she moved to Oxford, Ohio after college. She met her husband of 57 years, John “Jack” Eliassen, on top of Mount LaConte, in Great Smoky Mountain National Park. They were married on September 1, 1962. She is preceded in death by her husband Jack, and her parents Mildred and Webster Pendergrass. She is survived by her three children James Eliassen (Ruth Hemmer), Erin Knight (Ryan), and Katherine Marley (Thomas), grandchildren Isabel, Luke, and Tim Eliassen, Reed and Abigail Knight, Janna and Carmen Marley, sister-in-law Sonja Hancke, nieces Karen Hancke Dolan (Chriis) and Kristine Hancke, and many beloved cousins.

Betty and Jack moved around the Midwest and Northeast following Jack’s career, accumulating dear friends, until finally settling in Houston, TX in 1979. Betty was busy loving and raising her three children, in elementary and middle school by the time they got to Houston. While there, Betty worked at Craft Industries as a knitting instructor and later as a librarian for the Houston Public Library. These were the days of regular phone calls to the reference desk to solve crossword puzzles, dig up research information, and settle bets! She had so many good stories to share about life at the Library. Betty and Jack accumulated more dear friends in their neighborhood and at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church. After retirement, they moved to Byrdstown, TN to a section of the Pendergrass farm, originally purchased from John Sevier, in 1802. Betty and Jack moved to Lincoln, NE in 2017 to be closer to children and grandchildren.

Jack taught Betty how to knit early in their marriage. She was a talented and prolific knitter, teaching many family and friends to knit along the way, assisted by Jack who seemed to actually enjoy untangling messy balls of yarn! Betty enjoyed trying new patterns, playing with color, and using technically difficult stitches. She found joy in teaching others how to read patterns and adjust them for a better fit. She also gardened and cared for animals of all kinds, fostering cats and dogs, watching birds, and avidly participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count at their home in Tennessee. Most of all, she loved to spend time with her children and grandchildren and also with her life-long friends from all over the U.S.

Since 2017 Betty found more very dear friends that made the Landing a special community. She continued to knit, teach, and create, play in the chime choir, and she was cast to provide deadpan commentary, to great acclaim, for the past two years in the annual Melodrama!

A service for family and friends will be held in Lincoln, NE on Saturday, December 28, 2024, 10:30 AM, at Southern Heights Presbyterian Church, 5750 S. 40th Street, Lincoln, NE 68516. A Celebration of Life will be held in Byrdstown, TN, with internment at the Pleasant Pendergrass Cemetery on Tuesday, June 3, 2025. More information about the June Celebration will be forthcoming. Memorials may be made to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (creators of the Merlin bird identification app, at https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/, Knitted Knockers, an organization that coordinates the production and distribution of volunteer knitted prosthetics for breast cancer survivors at https://www.knittedknockers.org/donations/, and the Mildred Pendergrass Endowment at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, an endowment in Betty's mother's name honoring those who work tirelessly behind the scenes at UTIA at https://giveutia.tennessee.edu/ or by mail: UT Foundation, 114 Morgan Hall, 2621 Morgan Circle, Knoxville, TN 37996.