A Legacy For Aptos Library
By Jondi Gumz
When I heard about a $650,000 gift to the Aptos library, allowing the renovation of the branch to add 3,000 square feet, I was curious.
Leaders of the Friends of the Aptos Library, which formed in 2014, believe this is the biggest gift the Aptos library has ever received.
Who is this generous donor?
Betty Leonard
You will probably see her name in the library when the renovation is complete: Betty Leonard.
She died in 2018 just before her 91st birthday.
Betty was born in 1927 in Clovis and earned her registered nurse degree in 1948 in San Francisco.
In a black and white photo of that time, perhaps her graduation portrait, she’s wearing lipstick and her white nurse’s cap and looking glamorous.
She worked for a general practitioner locally, then in the Dominican Hospital nursery, and encouraged people to give blood at the Watsonville Blood Bank.
She was married to Robert O. “Bob” Leonard, an ag researcher in Monterey County affiliated with UC Davis, and they had a daughter Lindy and a son Taggart “Tag,” both of whom graduated from Watsonville High School.
Here is what I learned about her from her friends in Aptos, artist Beverly Moore and Teri Handzel, her “book buddy” at the library.
When Betty’s husband was on sabbatical, they traveled to Ireland, a place she loved, producing a box full of photos.
Betty enjoyed playing bridge in a regular foursome. She loved museums and the arts. She was always well-dressed.
After her husband died in 1980, she traveled with her friend, interior designer Sue Stapleton.
Her daughter died of a brain tumor in 1998, leaving two granddaughters.
Betty enjoyed seeing her son Tag, a Stanford University grad and a health care administrator, in Tucson. On one visit, she stayed three years.
Tag, who had a heart condition, came back to California to help his mom and died in 2016.
Friends say Betty was a lifelong learner, always reading books.
Betty Leonard left the Aptos Library $650,000 in her will.
She was a frequent visitor at the Aptos library, an 8,000-square-foot building built in 1975.
As she got on in years, it became more difficult for her to walk, to make that trip to the library.
She wondered if the library had a service to deliver books.
That program is called “Book Buddies.”
Teri Handzel volunteers for that program, and she was matched with Betty.
“It was a pleasure for me,” Handzel said. “She told me what books she likes. Then I’d say, if you liked that, how about this?”
She didn’t realize Betty was losing her eyesight but when Betty could no longer read, she would request audiobooks from the library.
“She loved listening to the audiobooks,” Handzel said.
Beverly Moore, her artist friend, said Betty and her son Taggart wanted to leave something to the Aptos community they loved so much, and that is why the Leonard Trust Fund made this generous donation to the Aptos library.
The bequest arrived as the Santa Cruz Public Libraries, with funds from a voter-approved sales tax, was moving ahead on plans to improve library branches across the county.
The library director, in consultation with the Friends of the Aptos Library, agreed to hold the funds for the remodel of the Aptos branch slated to start in 2021.
“The significance of this gift cannot be overstated,” said Tricia Wynne, vice president of the Friends of the Aptos Library.
Susan Nemitz, the library director, said it will be a design-build project in which the builder and architect work together. She’s enthusiastic about the talent interested in the project.
The name of the architect will be announced soon, and she expects it will be 2022 when the renovated and expanded library reopens.
There may be some design features that take into account the COVID-19 realities, such as plexiglass, windows that open to provide ventilation and expanding WiFi to the parking lot so parents can park outside for their kids to do their homework online.
“The library is about community connections, one of the few spaces that draw people of all ages,” Nemitz said. “ I don’t want to lose that.”
While the library branches have been closed since mid-March due to the coronavirus, all sorts of virtual services are available: e-books on OverDrive, audiobooks on RBdigital, watching films on Kanopy, and new programs such as Santa Cruz Resilience.
So when some say there’s no need for libraries today, I’m reminded of what Mark Twain said: “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”
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To visit the library’s online services, go to santacruzpl.org
To learn about the Friends of the Aptos Library, go to www.friendsofaptoslibrary.org