June 7, 1918-September 14, 2011
Betty was the first born to Glenn and Lulu Osborn in Thorp, Washington and was named after her maternal grandmother s Ruth Ellison and Mary Elizabeth Dolbee. At age four she moved to Washougal with her parents where her dad taught science and coached the sports teams at the local high school. During that year her sister, Glenna, was born. They made many wonderful friends with whom they had picnics on the Washougal River, potluck dinners in homes and spent Friday evenings listening to classical music. This is where Betty began her lifetime love of music. The family attended the Christian Science Church in Camas on Sundays. Betty’s grandparents, James and Adelma Osborn, moved to Washougal to be with their son, Glenn, worked in Pendleton at the woolen mill. Adelma worked in a ladies ready-to-wear store.
The Osborn family moved to Seattle where Glenn enrolled at the University of Washington to finish a four- year degree in education. Glenn graduated from the University of Washington in 1925 he obtained a position in Bellevue ,Washington, to coach baseball, manual training, and teach science at Bellevue High School. Lulu would become active in Camp Fire, Women’s Club, and help to start the Bellevue Library. She was a devoted wife and mother.
Initially Glenn and his family wondered where Bellevue was, since the family was living in Seattle at the time. So they found that if they got on a little ferry called Leschi down on Lake Washington where the ferry crossed the lake and moured in Meydenbauer Bay. After getting off the ferry the family got off the ferry and walked to Wildwood Park up to a street that had some stores called Main Street (as it is today). Walking east on Main Street to the crest of the hill which overlooked a valley, Glenn thought “where was Bellevue?” and he asked a man working in his garden, who replied “you just walked through it!”
All school teachers were required to live within the school district they taught in, so the family moved from Seattle to Bellevue. They lived in a home that is still in existence, across from what was known then as the Water Tower (a home where people got water from a well, there was no water system in Bellevue at the time.) As a first grader Betty had to walk across a wooden plank bridge over Meydenbauer Ravine, which was very frightening to her. The high school was on Main Street at the south end of 100th Avenue. The street was lined with magnificent Maple Trees up to 8th St. The school was wooden and there were a number of steps that went up to the second floor. Glenn taught manual training (How to Use Tools) in a shed that was out on the grounds behind the school. They lived in what was called the Green House for two years then discovered that there was a family that lived three blocks from them that knew one of the Glenn’s professors at the UW. They lived on 5th and 98th. The family moved next door to the Floyd Volk family in 1928 in what was known as The Grey House , which is located on what was then the end of 98th Avenue, which at that time ended in a forest. The family had three girls (Virginia, Barbara and Edith), who became Betty and Glenna’s best friends. The family stayed there until 1935 the year Betty graduated from Bellevue High School.
Lulu had gotten a house plan from a magazine for $1 with all the information as to how to build a house, and in 1935 they began building the current house at 747 96th Ave N.E. which was built by Glenn and the neighbor across the street (James Godsey). The building process took two years, since they only were able to work weekends and in the summer. The work involved clearing the lot which had been chosen due to its view of Mount Rainer, Mercer Island, and all of Seattle from Seward Park to Lauralhurst. The lot also had a magnificent view of the Olympic Mountains. There were no trees that interferred with the view in these directions. The land had been logged off once before which was the reason the view was able to be seen. At the time NE 8th was a little gravel road, and the only house in Vuecrest was the Patrick Downey farm (famous for its strawberries and peas) which covered the covered the entire area. The farms’ well was also the source of most of the water used by the of the residents of that part of Bellevue. At the northwest corner of 8th and 100th was a small shack occupied by some Japanese immigrants who helped manage the farm.
In 1936, Betty began attending the UW on a music scholarship. Glenna was in 8th grade at the time. Betty lived in Laurelhust on the beach with her high school music teacher and her husband who was an engineering professor at the University. There was a tall stairway up to the street which she had to climb every day to get to the university. She would come home on weekends on the Leschi Ferry. There were no bridges across Lake Washington from the East Side at this time.
On Mondays, she would walk to a bus stop which took her to the Medina Ferry Dock, where she took the ferry which landed at Leschi. The ferry carried both cars and passengers. From the Leschi dock she ran to the Yesler Cable Car, which took her down Yesler Way in Seattle to 3rd Street, at which point she got on a steetcar to the University. The old music building was originally a part of the America-Yukon Exposition, which had also served as the President’s home.
During the time she was in college what is now called I-90, but was then called “The Floating Bridge”, was built. Betty began taking a car pool to school instead of the Ferry. She graduated in June of 1941 since she was not able to attend full time for four consecutive years. Glenna graduated from Bellevue High school the same year Betty graduated from UW. Betty was a TA in the music department at the University of Washington and living with her parents.
Staff Sergeant Robert R. Lambert was in charge of the 268 system radar testing in Bellevue at what is now Sacred Heart Church. It had initially been tested at Fort Benning, Georgia, and had been recently brought to Washington.
In the spring of 1942, Betty’s dad learned that a group of Army men assigned to the Coast Artillery which was assigned to protect Boeing aircraft as a result of some early radar work they were testing. They were camped on the top of Clyde Hill in Bellevue. Glenn contacted them to schedule a baseball game between their team and the Bellevue High School team. The pitcher on the Army team was SSgt Lambert. It was a fun game, but Betty did not attend. She learned later that Bill Burnell, the brother-in-law of her now married sister, Glenna, was hit by a pitched ball from SSgt Lambert. When her dad was at dinner that evening he told about the ball game with the Army soldiers. Betty asked her dad, “Why didn’t you invite the sergeant home for dinner?”
On December 7, 1941, her future husband and his buddies had been watching a movie at Ft. Benning Georgia, when suddenly the screen flashed, “Pearl Harbor has been attacked by the Japanese and all military personnel were to report immediately back to their units.” After being set up in several sites around the Seattle area they finally ended up at the current site of Sacred Heart Church, on what is now NE 14th. The unit occupied a family’s back yard area. Those kind folks allowed the Army fellows to use their bathroom facilities for showers and to hook up to their water system for the unit’s use.
At that time Florence (Hennig) Sullivan was living in Bellevue while her husband, a Navy man, was away in the service. Florence was the sister of Bob Hennig, with whom she had graduated in the 1935 class at Bellevue High School. Florence understood the need for entertainment for the local servicemen and became Bellevue’s USO (United Service Organization) organizer. She would put together a group of local college age girls on Sunday , organizing such activities as a picnic at someone’s lovely waterfront home, set up a roller skating party at Vasa Park on Lake Sammamish, go to a movie in Renton, and so on. One Sunday she asked Betty if she’d like to participate. Being sort of a shy person and not one to take chances, she said she’d think about it. But patriotic fervor kicked in and finally she said okay. The girls headed for Vasa Park for a skating party but the rink was closed. So they went down to Renton to a movie. Seated next to a Sergeant, she immediately became impressed with his uniform, the medals on his coat, and the fact that his arm was lying across the back of her chair. After the movie the soldiers invited the girls to come up to see their camp. First, though, they wanted to go back and change into less formal clothes, so the girls agreed to come up later in the afternoon.
By the time the girls arrived the fellows had taken showers and changed into fatigue dress clothes. Bob singled Betty out and asked if she’d like to sit on a blanket by him. She had always had a keen sense of smell and he had put on some Mennen After Shave lotion (which he used all of his life). On the bottle there was a phrase, “It wows the ladies.” Betty was properly “wowed.” Bob said that whenever they camped, if there was a plot, the fellows always planted a garden. They talked about the tomatoes they were raising (prophetic of the hydroponic tomatoes grown many years later in Redmond). As the evening grew cool Bob got his formal uniform and put the jacket around Betty’s shoulders. She was impressed with his thoughtfulness. Then they walked back down the lane to the cars waiting to take everybody home.
Betty vaguely recalled one other visit up to the camp. She drove to it, but there was not a single sign of any camp having ever been there. She was truly disappointed. Only the tomato plants gave a clue that anyone had been there. By this time she had become more than a little interested in Sergeant Lambert and didn’t want to lose contact with him. The only address she could come up with was “Sergeant Robert Lambert, Company C, Coast Artillery, Seattle, Washington.” She wrote him a letter telling of her disappointment at finding the camp gone. Only the tomatoes were still there she noted. She must have given her telephone number in the letter because a few days later her mother said, “you’re wanted on the phone, and it’s Sergeant Lambert.” And that was the beginning of how Betty met Bob. From that point on there was no end to phone calls and dates.
The Army unit was sent to what is now Burien. Eventually Bob was promoted to Tech Sergeant, and began to teach radar classes in a building on the east side of the rose garden at the Seattle Zoo. It was e a more romantic setting for a courtship. Sitting on a bench overlooking a lovely rose garden in full bloom was really special. Because Bob’s position was so unsettled he never knew from one day to the next if he would be shipped out. During this time Betty was working at Frederick and Nelson’s in Seattle. Since life was so iffy they decided to get married in the first part of September. They had only met the previous May, but it was truly “Love at First Sight.”
Bob was a devout Catholic and Betty was Christian Science in belief. According to the rules of the Catholic Church, Betty was required to take a course of instruction from a priest before marriage. This took a little time. In former years and customs an engagement was to last for a year before marriage. This allowed the couple to learn to know each other better. The bride-to-be would prepare by assembling a “hope chest’’of linens, dishes, pots and pans, and whatever was needed to set up housekeeping, and be given several showers by her friends who helped her accumulate these necessities. Bob had proposed on July 11th and they were married in the rectory of St. Anne’s Church on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle on September 14, 1942, by the Catholic Chaplain of his military unit.
Betty’ sister Glenna was the maid-in-honor. Bob’s best man was his good buddy Sam. Betty’s mom and dad were the attendants. Bob had a week’s furlough so they borrowed her folks’ car and drove to Lake Kachess for a honeymoon. From there they visited Betty’s Aunt Etta and Uncle Speed Knoke in Thorp for a night, staying a night with her Aunt Maud and Uncle Walter Cummings, a jeweler in Ellensburg, and then drove to Washougal. There they stayed for a night with Betty’s Grandmother, Adelma , and Grandfather James Osborn. James was still working at the Pendleton woolen mill in Washougal. The honeymoon tour included all of Betty’s near relatives.
After they returned from the honeymoon Bob continued teaching radar near Woodland Park. They got an apartment near Greenlake so Bob could walk to work. Betty went for walks, fixed up the apartment, did a lot of reading and generally waited for Bob to get home.
The next major event in our lives was the birth of their first son. On the way to the birthing home Betty’s dad’s car broke down, so she and her mom hailed a pickup truck and went to the birthing home, and shortly thereafter a nearly 10 pound baby with two teeth was born, named Robert Glenn. At the time Bob decided he wanted to do more than teach, so he applied and was accepted for a pilot introduction training course in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Betty went with the new baby to stay with her folks. In November, Betty took her newborn and 12 glass bottles of formula to Union Station in Seattle and departed for Grand Forks. The trip took two days and nights. When she arrived in Grand Forks, she was escorted to the home of by Alma Oehler who needed someone to babysit her boys while she work at the General Mills plant in Grand Forks, an arrangement which Bob had made. Betty stayed in Grand Forks from November 1943 until March 1944, when she took the train back to Seattle. Bob found out that pilots were being cut back and he didn’t want to be a “doughboy” so he asked if Betty would agree to him being a paratrooper . Eventually, he left for jump training at Fort Benning, Ga. He wrote letters everyday about his experiences at Ft. Benning, and upon completion of paratrooper training he was assigned to the 82nd Airborne.
Bob got time off and came home for Christmas, 1944. He and his brother-in-law, Jack Burnell, returned East on a train together, and departed at St. Louis where Jack headed back to his duties as an instructor pilot and Bob returned to Fort Benning. In early 1945, Bob departed on a ship for Scotland to prepare to jump into Germany in April with the 82nd Airborne’s mission over the Rhine. During the ensuing action, he was photographed by a Life Magazine photographer (Robert Capra) and was featured in an article in the April 9, 1945 issue of Life Magazine. After sustaining an injury in combat, he lost the full function of his pancreas, which landed him in a hospital in France to recover. He returned on a ship back across the Atlantic and finally reached Fort Lewis Hospital in Tacoma in the summer of 1945. Betty was finally able to see him.
Bob was eventually discharged from the Army out of Ft. Lewis Hospital, and returned to Betty and toddler Rob in Bellevue. He found a place for his family to live in Stewart Heights near Houghton, (just north of Bellevue). Stewart Heights was a place for returning veterans to get back on their feet as they rejoined the civilian world. He purchased his first vehicle, an Army Surplus Jeep. He began work at Sand Point Naval Base as a parachute packer, then moved on to working in a meat packing plant in Seattle. After that experience he was very reluctant to ever eat a sausage or hot dog. Betty’s Aunt Maud bought Betty and Bob a house north of the Bellevue Way post office in Bellevue, a half mile from Betty’s parent’s home. It was at this time that Bob’s love of electronics kicked in, and he often went to Betty’s folks house to worked on projects in the basement. Betty’s cousin, Alton Knoke, who had been in electronics in the Navy, decided to go in to business with Bob. They rented a building on Main Street and opened a Westinghouse Sales and Service Appliance Store, the first of its kind in Bellevue. During this time, the VA confirmed that Bob would be a lifelong diabetic.
In 1946 David Anthony was born at the same birthing home in West Seattle that his brother had been born in three years earlier. Bob’s relatives lived in Kranzburg, S.D. and Sioux Falls. Betty and Bob visited them for the first time in 1947 when they traveled there in their woody station wagon with the two boys. They visited Uncle Johnny and Uncle Chris Rhur in Kranzburg, then on to Sioux Falls to meet Bob’s Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Olaf Floren and their son, Rollie. They also met Bob’s sister, Geraldine, at Aunt Mary’s and Uncle Jake’s farm in Minnesota. Bob’s other sister, Arleen was in the Marines at the time. They returned to Bellevue by way of Yellowstone Park .
In 1949 a third child, Catherine Lou, was born, and the next year Betty and Bob left Bellevue for a small farm on the outskirts of Redmond. Bob continued to commute to the store in Bellevue, and Betty went about settling in as a farm wife and mom. There was enough acreage to run a few head of cattle, keep some chickens and ducks, and set up some rabbit pens. Betty and the kids took care of the farm while Bob worked at the store. In 1954, Bob sold the store and went to work for Boeing Aircraft Company at the dawn of The Jet Age with the Boeing 707 coming on line. Betty began helping out family finances by teaching piano lessons, which earned some income and kept her involved with her love of music, including her Christian Science Church membership and music service. In that same year Rob began playing Little League Baseball in Kirkland since Redmond didn’t have a Little League program. The next year Bob started up the Redmond Program as the founding father of Redmond Little League Baseball. Rob made the all-star team in 1955 and the team traveled to the Western U.S. Finals in Santa Monica, California. After coaching one of the teams in Redmond, Bob was instrumental in moving the program to the next level by convincing the Redmond Lions Club to sponsor a Babe Ruth League Team which he would coach and Rob and Dave would play in following Little League. For the next 8 years, the family’s focus centered around sports as both Rob and Dave played football, basketball, baseball and track & field(Rob)through their high school years at Lake Washington High School. Betty and Cathy dutifully watched hundreds of games and became big rooters for the boys. Cathy was given a pony during these years, and she also enjoyed ballet classes. They boys ran a small paper route for the Seattle Times and earned income by milking the family cow, Milly, and then selling some of the milk after Betty pasturized it. Betty saved enough during this time to purchase a Steinway upright piano. She began composing music, mostly Christian Hymns and colorful compositions for the ballet performances and favorite poems, a process that would continue for the next 60 years.
In 1961, Rob left home for the Air Force Academy. Betty continued to serve as organist for the Christian Science Church in Redmond and was very active in the church. Bob, Betty, and Dave traveled to Colorado Springs by train in December 1961 to visit Rob at the Academy (freshmen weren’t allowed to come home their first Christmas). They took Rob’s girlfriend, Eileen who was a senior at LWHS where Dave was a sophomore with them on the memorable journey. Dave graduated from high school in 1964 and went to the University of Washington to play baseball. He eventually signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates and began working his way through the minor leagues in hopes of fulfilling Bob’s dream that one of his boys would play major league baseball. Rob and switched to track and field and went on to become the Captain of the AF Academy’s Track Team and an Olympic Games Trials Finalist in 1968. With just Cathy left at home and going to the new Redmond High School, Betty began working more on her music and started to compose songs that would be played at her church in Redmond. In 1967 Cathy graduated from Redmond High School and left for the University of Hawaii, leaving Betty and Bob empty nesters. Betty continued focusing on music while Bob shifted to the Boeing Plant in Everett to begin working on the 747 in Quality Control.
In 1968 Betty and Bob traveled to Sacramento to attend Rob’s wedding to Sandee Braun, and the following year they became grandparents for the first time to a blue-eyed blond named Tiffaney Ann Lambert. Seven more grandchildren would come along between the years 1969 and 1990. Dave married Liz Johnson in 1972 and they had a son, Jon, and a daughter, Emily. Cathy would marry Rob’s college roommate’s brother, Steve Gibbs, that same year, and they gave Betty and Bob three grandsons (Brett, Spencer, and Paul) and a granddaughter Audrey during the ensuing years. Rob and Sandee would move every 3-4 years as a result of Rob’s military assignments. Dave had to leave his baseball career in the early 70’s due to an injury and returned to the University of Washington to finish his degree.
During the early 1970’s Bob took an early retirement from Boeing after hospitalization and slow recovery from a car accident. He and Dave began a venture with hydroponic gardening. Two greenhouses were built on the farm and eventually another farm was started in Sunneyside where Dave and Liz moved to run that operation. After limited success and a disastrous fire in Sunneyside, the gardening era ended. Dave and Liz moved to Vancouver where Dave began a 30 year career as a horticulture teacher in the local school district. Liz would teach kindergarten during this time while raising Jon and Emily. Cathy and Steve had moved to Boston while Steve finished his graduate work at MIT, while Cathy taught at the Perkins School for the Blind. In 1972, both of Betty’s parents died within a week of each other and Bob and Betty sold the farm and moved back to Bellevue to the same house Betty had lived in growing up. Betty’s sister Glenna and her husband Jack had built a house on Osborn property twenty years previously, so the sisters became neighbors.
Betty and Bob traveled during this period taking Alaska Inland Passage Cruise, a trip to Europe to visit the places that Bob served during the war, and also a couple of wonderful trips to Hawaii. Bob never returned to Boeing even though he was asked to come back as the re-hiring took place. Betty joined the First Church of Christian Science in Bellevue and became very involved in its operation for the next 40 years. She would go on to serve in many different positions in the church from organist to board member. Bob turned his great interpersonal skills into a money maker as he became a realtor in Bellevue during its pre Microsoft “boom era.” Betty’s continuing membership in the Music Study Club which would become one of the great focal points of her life. The group would meet periodically in each other’s homes to discuss all aspects of music, perform for and with each other on their respective instruments and/or with their vocal skills, and generally grew to become close friends as well as musically talented individuals.
In the summer of 1981 Bob had a heart attack while visiting Dave and Liz in Portland. He eventually recovered but was told he’d have to retire from working (at the age of 60). For the next two years Betty watched over Bob’s health as they stayed in Bellevue and lived the life of a retired couple which included visiting grandchildren, staying involved in their respective churches, and pursuing their hobbies which included music composition for Betty and stock investing for Bob. In the spring of 1983 Bob had a second heart attack while mowing the lawn and passed away hours later. Betty become a widow at the age of 65 and would experience a complete change of lifestyle. After recovering from the loss of her husband she threw herself into her music and church. During this period Betty made two trips to Washington D.C. to visit Rob and his family while he was stationed in the D.C. area. She had the privilege of attending football games at both West Point and the Naval Academy as Rob was involved in the AF Academy’s chief representative at the Pentagon. She also became highly involved with Cathy’s family who lived in Bellevue, just 4 miles away. Many Saturday nights were spent with the Gibbs Kids watching television (a non-event in their house) at Grandmas. In 1988 Betty traveled with Rob, Sandee and their youngest daughter Hillary on a journey from Virginia to Washington State. On the journey they visited Bob’s youngest sister Arleen in Pittsburgh, and his other sister Gerry and her family in Minneapolis. This was her first chance to see them since Bob’s passing, and it was a wonderful time of healing and remembering the good times.
From 1988 to 1991 Betty had all of her kids living in Washington State and thoroughly enjoyed being involved with her family. Steve and Cathy lived in Bellevue just 4 miles away with their three, soon to be four, children. Dave and Liz lived in Vancouver with the children and Rob and Sandee lived on Bainbridge Island, with Rob working the UW at the AFROTC unit. On Thursday evenings Rob would stay with Betty in Bellevue since he had early morning ROTC duty on Fridays. They began spending Thursday evenings playing piano-trombone duets as Rob had taken up trombone again after a 40 year hiatus. Christmas times were spent with all of her immediate family surrounding her in the home she’d grown up in. These were truly golden years for her. In 1989 she joined with one of her best friends, Dorthy Furbish, on a journey to see the torn down Berlin Wall. This was so special to her since Bob had fought in this area during WWII.
In 1993 Rob and Sandee were re-assigned to Alabama. Just after their departure Betty had an accident as a result of falling trying to avoid her dog Candi and had to spend time recuperating in Sunrise Haven, a Christian Science Nursing Home. After this she never was quite as mobile or agile as she had been, and had to refocus her life somewhat. Needless to say she became even more prolific with her music, composing numerous songs that eventually found their way into publication. She continued to faithfully serve her church and the Music Study Group once again became a focal point of her life’s activity. She became a great- grandmother in 1992 as Tiffaney (Rob’s daughter) and her husband Rick brought Larissa Paige Henry into the clan in 1992. She would lose a grandchild during this period as Dave’s son Jon would have an accident during post-graduate work in Japan in 1997 and passed away.
In 1997 she flew to San Diego to witness the wedding of Rob’s youngest daughter Hillary to Mark Keyes. A couple of years later with Rob now retired from the Air Force and living in Alabama Betty would join in a family vacation on Dauphin Island where she “educated her granddaughters” on what parents go through raising their children. It was a unique experience for all involved, and there was no doubt that the family matriarch was still a strong lady. That would be her last major trip as her strength began to wane somewhat as she passed her 85th year.
For the final decade of her life Betty spent much of her time deeply involved with her music. With administrative assistance from Dave and Liz she began to publish her music. Her writing and composing skills continued to stay sharp as she moved past her 90th birthday and enjoyed a wonderful surprise birthday party that was given in her honor upon her at Salty’s Restaurant in West Seattle where all of Cathy’s kids and both of Rob’s girls joined Rob, Dave and Cathy honoring their Mother’s milestone. She also became a great grandmother for a second time as Dave and Liz’s daughter Emily and her husband Craig presented Betty with Islyn Scott in 2009. And then in July 2011 Tiffaney, at the age of 42, gave Betty her third great-granddaughter as little Sophie Henry was born.
From 2008 to 2011 Betty began to slow down physically but her mind stayed as sharp as ever. Even into her 92nd year she was handling her own checkbook, staying up with her yard, and baking the “best chocolate chip cookies known to man” according to her kids and grandkids. She spent the early part of 2011 in respite care at Sunrise Haven and then returned home in May to spend what would be her final days “at my house.” With the coordinated efforts of Rob, Dave, Cathy and her grandson Brett who lived in the house with her, she had a true family and friends “care/share” time for two months until mid-August when her condition got worse to the point that she returned to Sunrise. In what was to be a final fitting tribute to Betty, the Mother Church of Christian Science in Boston had one of her compositions, “And A Child Shall Lead Them” sung by the soloist on the final Sunday of August. Betty passed peacefully in the Lord’s arms early in the morning of Sept 14, 2011, on what would have been the 69th anniversary of her wedding to Staff Sergeant Robert Lambert. A fitting end to a true love story and a wonderful life lived to the fullest.
Donations can be made to continue the publishing of Betty’s
music by sending a check to the:
Ruth E. Lambert Estate
c/o Robert G. Lambert, Executor
309 W. College St
Troy, AL 36081
Click on the pictures below to enlarge:
