Moviegoers who crossed paths with Bettyan Howard can never forget her.
Howard earned the affectionate nickname “Popcorn Betty” for the countless bags of popcorn she served to countless Kiggins Theatre moviegoers across the decades. But she surely earned some under-the-breath nicknames too, for the way she managed the historic downtown theater with a historically iron fist.
“I’ve got a theory that she had to be tough, because this was baby-sitting central,” said Dan Wyatt, current owner of the Kiggins, who remembers Howard back in the day. “I mean, everyone would just drop their kids off and leave them for the whole day. Tons of kids grew up coming here, and it was almost like a rite of passage, being yelled at by Popcorn Betty.”
Howard, who ruled day-to-day operations and the concessions counter at the Kiggins from 1965 to 1996, died Feb. 22 of complications from pneumonia, according to her daughter, Stephanie Leckwold. She was 90 years old and had also declined into dementia in recent years, Leckwold said.
That was true on April 7 of last year, when the Kiggins hosted a 90th birthday party for Howard attended by her family, friends and fans. Howard didn’t have much to say, but she clearly had a blast being the center of attention and revisiting the site that was a de facto second home for herself and her children, Leckwold said.
“We used to think we owned the place, because Mom was here so much and we were here so much,” Leckwold said last year during the party.
But ownership didn’t extend as far as rowdy behavior, she added this week: “You couldn’t be running up and down the aisles or up and down the stairs. Mom would call you out and stand you against the wall.”
Howard’s office was at the bottom of those stairs. It’s been remade into today’s first-floor restroom.
“She was stern and followed all the rules,” Leckwold said, but she added that online appreciation of Howard in the last few days has been “overwhelming. A lot have related how Mom really nurtured them. She was like a second mom to them. She was stern, but she had a heart of gold.”
“She was organized, on time, and I couldn’t get away with anything just because she used to take care of me as a kid,” David Dohrman said last year at the party. Dohrman grew up Howard’s neighbor and then got his first job working for her at the Kiggins. “She was equally tough on everyone. You did what she expected, you did it with a smile and you showed up on time,” he said.
The sternness was earned honestly, Leckwold added. Howard’s husband left her to raise four young children on her own. “Mom was alone her entire life, she worked really hard and didn’t have a lot of time off,” Leckwold said. “She was always with us kids.”
Leckwold said a Popcorn Betty celebration of life is headed for the Kiggins sometime soon. Details are still pending.
