Val Lankford, 1942-2022
Val Ann Lankford was born in Kansas on February 12, 1942, and passed away on April 4, 2022 in Denver, Colorado. She was the daughter of Harry Grover Lankford Jr. and Evor Nadine (Burke) Lankford. Val was the oldest of three children. Her two younger siblings were Harry Grover III, born in 1944, and her sister Sidonie, born in 1945.
Val’s father graduated from Purdue in Engineering and by the start of World War II was employed at Cessna in Wichita. Val’s mother graduated from East High and attended Wichita University. She married Harry Lankford in Wichita in June 1941. By 1950, the family was living at 3921 E. English in College Hill. This is the home where Val grew up.
Val Ann graduated from Wichita High School East in 1960. No record of higher education was found.
In December 1962, the Wichita Eagle published a photograph of Val announcing her engagement to marry Steven L. Mayee (or Mayea?). No record of this marriage was found.
Val lived in Denver for most of her adult life. Her first child, Lisa Evor, was born in March 1966. In January 1970, Val married James Christy. She had at least two more children, Terry Lynn and Jason Spencer.
Editor’s Note: So far, we are unable to locate an obituary for Val. Elaine Sunde Hill researched the above information about her and drafted this narrative. If any of you can provide more information about Val, or if you have remembrances of her, please share them with either Marilyn (mbellert@niu.edu) or Diane (ddzinn@aol.com).
I have tried to locate Val, for many years, in the Denver area. I worked with Val and other girls during senior year. Her father Harry Langford had a stock market publication that was produced and in the mail by every Saturday afternoon. We girls had to check Barron’s and news sources for stock splits and put the information on every New York Exchange chart. We inked charts each Saturday morning, arriving to work between 6:30 and 7:00 am, after our manager walked in with the ticker tapes of the Friday high, low, and close of stock prices. We all got along very well and even learned a bit about the market. After working 20 hours a week during college and full time in the summers, we added to the Quote Digest by adding the American Stock Exchange. Dianne Pope worked there as long as I and Brenda Benjamin was there part of the time. Other girls from East also worked there.
Val was very pleasant and Quote Digest was a good place to work. Harry Lankford was a very bright man who also collected cars.
I tracked down Val in Denver maybe 20 years ago. She was living with a son and working as a teacher’s aide or maybe in a daycare. We drove out to Red Rocks for a nice visit but she seemed reluctant to share any personal information. I also worked a few times for Mr Lankford. I remember they once had chipmunks in a large cage in their basement.