Montlake Branch Named Spaces
Don G. and Jane Markham Abel Meeting Room; Luke and Annalee Pigott Children's Area; and the Betty Bennett Simpson Reading Area.
Don G. and Jane Markham Abel Meeting Room
Don G. Markham practiced law for over 40 years. He was a leader in numerous civic affairs, including president of the Metropolitan Democratic Club, president of the Municipal League, president of the World Affairs Council, president of the English Speaking Union and a scout master in Cub Scouts. In his later years, he served on the boards of the Arboretum Foundation and the Puget Sound Blood Bank. Jane Markham Abel raised three children and was active in community groups, including Cub Scouts, Campfire, PTA, P.E.O. Sisterhood and Colonial Dames of America. She was a board member for the Seattle Opera and the Salvation Army.
Luke and Annalee Pigott Children's Area
Betty Bennett Simpson Reading Area
Betty Simpson was born in 1919 in Ohio and grew up in Oak Park, Ill., where she married her husband, Francis M. Simpson. During her early married life, Simpson worked with psychologically disturbed adults and children and then later as a teacher. Due to her husband's work, she moved their family of four children a total of 29 times. An avid reader, she often says that were it not for reading and libraries, she doesn't know how she would have made it through all those years of moving.
When Simpson learned that her family was naming a room at the Montlake Branch near her home in her honor, she responded that she hadn't done anything important enough to deserve it. However, her family understands better than she, that raising four children who all went to college and have productive, good lives is an accomplishment worth honoring. Her family appreciates all that she has given to them, including a love for reading and libraries.