Los Gatos Weekly-Times | August 14, 2002

August 14, 2002 Los Gatos, California Since 1881

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Betty McClendon

Betty McClendon touched the lives of many

By Shari Kaplan

"There was a star danced, and under that was I born."

This quotation from the character of Beatrice in William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing is one that many of Betty McClendon's family and friends agree fit her as well as an old pair of dancing shoes.

Susan Elizabeth "Betty" McClendon, who spent more than a half-century making sure Los Gatos youth were taught the social graces of dance and deportment, died July 21 of complications from emphysema. She was 88.

"I have no doubt that Shakespeare had Betty in mind when he wrote those lines," says close friend Patti Hughes, a Los Gatos resident and former longtime assistant principal at Los Gatos High School.

"Betty was truly born under a star, and to all of us who knew her, she was a star—regal, glamorous, interesting—somehow different from anyone else we knew," Hughes adds.

McClendon's calling card was her passion for the art of dance and her equally passionate dedication to teaching dancing to others. A native of Lompoc, she and her family settled in Los Gatos when she was a young girl. A graduate of the old University Avenue School and Los Gatos High School, she worked—while still a student—as a reporter for the old Los Gatos Times.

At the same time, she also kept busy helping a local dance teacher in exchange for receiving dance lessons. McClendon inherited the studio when her mentor left town, and she took on the role of teacher at the studio, located inside the Los Gatos History Club.

She only left her adopted home town once. For 10 years, she lived in New York, where she worked as a dance instructor at the Fred Astaire and Arthur Murray dance studios. Upon returning to Los Gatos, she began teaching again, including at Daves Avenue Elementary School in Los Gatos and at the Saratoga Foothill Club.

Among McClendon's students were many prominent past and present Los Gatans, including former Town Councilman Brent Ventura, former Los Gatos High School principal Ted Simonson, the late Los Gatos Weekly-Times columnist John Baggerly and his wife, Barbara, former local ballet school owner Paul "Bud" Curtis, who later taught with her, Santa Cruz Mountains musician and recording artist Joe Weed. In 1985, Joanne Rodgers, founder of Community Against Substance Abuse (CASA) talked McClendon into coming out of retirement to teach ballroom dancing and the social graces to a new generation.

McClendon also had many fans in Saratoga, including longtime resident and historian Willys Peck, who studied with her at the Foothill Club as a teenager, then later as a senior citizen—together with his wife, Betty—at McClendon's Los Gatos home.

"She was a delightful person who enjoyed sharing her talent. I can't say enough good things about her," says Peck, who is about 10 years McClendon's junior. "We enjoyed the lessons as well as the social time with Betty. She was a very lively, spirited person to know."

Her nephew Mark Mattenberger, who lived in Los Gatos before moving to Oregon, agrees.

"She was always young in spirit—right to the very end. She was a fun person," he recalls. "She was almost like a second mother to me. She never failed to go to my baseball games. And along with teaching me to dance, she also taught me to drive!"

Mattenberger says that he and his sister, Susan Mattenberger Behnke, had no choice but to attend their "Aunt Betty's" dance classes at Daves Avenue.

"If she saw that some people weren't quite getting it, she would go down the line of boys and select someone to be her partner," he says, laughing at the nervous anticipation he and the other preadolescents felt. "All of us boys had sweaty palms because we were meeting all these young ladies!"

However, he adds, he has many fond memories of the lessons and is glad he stuck it out. One of his favorite activities was McClendon's annual spring dance party, which included a cascade of falling balloons to stomp—many of which had slips of paper inside that entitled the lucky stomper to a prize.

Something else Mattenberger says he will always remember his aunt for is one of her favorite bits of advice, which she freely gave: "Always maintain your posture, and never grow old!"

Fortunately for everyone who knew her, McClendon followed her own advice for 88 years.

McClendon is survived by her niece Susan Behnke of Mesa, Ariz.; her nephew Mark Mattenberger and his wife, Susan, of Klamath Falls, Ore.; several grandnieces and grandnephews; one great-grandniece; and two great-grandnephews.

A celebration of McClendon's life will be held Oct. 6 at 2 p.m. at the Los Gatos History Club, 123 Los Gatos Blvd. Anyone who knew McClendon as a teacher or friend is welcome to attend.