CHILDHOOD GAVE WORK ETHIC.

Byline: BETTIE RENCORET Senior columnist

LANCASTER - Artis Mae Baudoin Bigalk died Feb. 1, just about the time the space shuttle Columbia broke apart over Texas.

Her death may not make the history books, but to many in the Antelope Valley, her loss is just as deeply felt.

Busy as a business co-owner as well as a homemaker, Artis managed to make a name for herself as a community leader.

For decades she and husband Jerry ran a Lancaster printing firm as true partners. Artis managed the front office and Jerry the shop area.

She was a charter member and served in all the offices of the now defunct Altrusa Club of Antelope Valley. Altrusa named her its outstanding member of the year four times.

She had a term as chairman of the Women's Division of the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce and was given the chamber's coveted Unsung Hero Award.

Artis was also a charter member of the Antelope Valley Club of Printing House Craftsmen. She served once as its president and then as secretary- treasurer.

If that wasn't enough she still found time to belong to a social club called The Emanons - that's ``no name'' backward - for which the membership requirement was to have worked at the Antelope Valley Ledger-Gazette newspaper. She also belonged the Birthday Club and the 500 Card Club.

After growing up on the family farm in Iowa, Artis was a young registered nurse when she met U.S. Army Medical Corps ambulance driver Gerald ``Jerry'' Bigalk on Dec. 7, 1946. They became engaged on Valentine's Day 1947 and were married little more than a month later on March 21.

Silk and other appropriate material was in short supply so her wedding dress was made from the material of a parachute he had brought home from Europe.

As a girl, Artis had gone with her parents to live on the farm her maternal grandparents were in danger of losing in the Great Depression. There were no so-called ``modern'' conveniences for her and her family. Wood stoves provided their heat. That meant the wood had to be chopped and carried in. Water came from a well so it had to be pumped. The bathroom was an outhouse.

Those were days that Artis liked to talk about when she heard people complain about modern living and working conditions. ``They don't know what sad conditions are really like,'' she'd say. ``They should try working on a farm. Any farm. Even the ones now are no picnic. I sure don't want to live on one again.''

She always admitted, though, that those days provided her with a work ethic she cherished.

``I think if a person is given a job to do, it's her obligation to put out the best product possible,'' she said. ``That's what people are paying for and you need to build a good reputation if you want to stay in business.''

She and Jerry lived first in Pomona, then Chino and Claremont before moving to Palmdale.

In 1955 they leased the commercial printing department from the Antelope Valley Ledger-Gazette newspaper and in 1957 they moved to Lancaster.

Soon after the newspaper moved to a new building in downtown Lancaster, the Bigalks changed the print shop name to Printing Service Center and went into a building just behind the newspaper office.

Her family and friends bade farewell Thursday at services conducted by Pastor Jim Ledgerwood at the Lancaster United Methodist Church.

Among those present to pay tribute to her were Ledger-Gazette Publisher John Valentine and his wife, Winona.

In addition to her husband of nearly 56 years, she is survived by two daughters, Barbara Thornhill of Grand Terrace, Calif., and Marcia Desjardins of Furlong, Pa., and four grandchildren.

Also mourning was Irma ``Bernadette'' Atillo, a foreign exchange student who lived with the Bigalks for a year and now lives in Temecula, whom Artis considered an ``adopted'' daughter.

Menus for the week at the senior life nutrition sites in Lancaster, Palmdale and South Valley have been announced. All meals include bread, margarine and coffee, tea or milk for a suggested donation of $2.

Monday: Salmon loaf, au gratin potatoes, parsleyed carrots, three bean salad, orange juice, fruit cocktail.

Tuesday: Garlic ginger chicken, baked potato, butternut squash, coleslaw, apple.

Wednesday: Turkey with gravy, bread dressing, spinach, garden salad, pineapple juice, peach crisp.

Thursday: Roast pork, sweet potatoes, stewed tomatoes, cottage cheese with pineapple, white cake.

Friday: Taco salad, macaroni salad, pea salad, apple juice, vanilla ice cream.

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Artis Mae Baudoin Bigalk, who passed away Feb. 1, lived and worked in the Antelope Valley since the 1950s. She said her childhood on a Depression-era farm gave her a strong work ethic.