Elizabeth 'Liz' Zottu Lane, 74, CDC lab inspector

By Rick Badie

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Elizabeth Lane proved  the importance of family when she moved to Atlanta from Nashville.  The divorced, single mom wanted her two sons to be near their father.

She rented an apartment in the Stone Mountain area. The boys saw their father on weekends.

"I was too young to understand what divorce was all about, but we knew it was best they weren't in the same house," said a son, Terence Lane of Charlotte. "But mom still always wanted to make it family."

In Nashville, Mrs. Lane had been a homemaker. In Atlanta, when she arrived in the mid-1970s, she had to work. She took a bank teller's job.  Eventually, she put her medical technology degree to use.

For five years, she worked in the blood laboratory at the Veterans Administration Hospital. Her next stop was the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, where she worked for 15 years.

As a CDC medical laboratory inspector, she visited hospitals and laboratories to ensure adherence to proper testing techniques and standards. She also took part in the research of the human papillomavirus, a group of viruses, many of which are sexually transmitted.

Growing up, the boys didn't always know what their mother did at the CDC. They understood, however, that the agency itself played a major role in preventive health measures globally.

"We'd hear these stories hitting the news about certain crises," said Brendan "John" Lane of Huntsville, Ala. "And we knew that somewhere within the CDC, not necessarily her group, the CDC was tackling things and was heavily involved."

Elizabeth "Liz" Zottu Lane, 74, of Johns Creek died Nov.13 of suspected heart failure at her home. A memorial service will be 3 p.m. Saturday at R.T. Patterson Funeral Home in Lilburn, which is in charge of arrangements.

Mrs. Lane was born in Middletown, Conn. She was a 1953 graduate of Newton North High -- formerly Newton High School -- in Newtonville, Mass.  Four years later, the Phi Mu sorority member earned a bachelor's degree in medical technology from the University of New Hampshire.

After school, she worked several years in the blood bank laboratories for the New England Baptist Hospital in Boston. She married Joseph Lane in the late 1950s; the couple divorced in 1969. They remained in touch throughout the years, though, and lived within blocks of each other in Johns Creek.

In retirement, Mrs. Lane immersed herself in gardening. She kept a vegetable patch behind her garage. The front of her back porch was a burst of colors. She encouraged her sons to till the soil, but they lacked her green thumb.

"She'd hand me stuff and say, ‘Here, just throw it out and it will grow," said her son, John. "Of course, it never did. She kept a [garden] of bright colors and a nice variety of flowers."

When her sons called, Mrs. Lane often talked about her volunteer work with United Hospice of Atlanta. She baked cookies for hospice patients, gave them magazines and fresh-cut flowers from her garden.

"She was skilled in compassion and respite," said Doris Nelms, who oversees Hospice volunteers. "This is a ministry in calling. People stay who are comfortable with the dying process and because they can make a difference. She had all those gifts."

Additional survivors include a brother, John Zottu of Washington, D.C.; two sisters, Sylvia Schade of Riverside, Ili., and Peggy Trimble of Natick, Mass.; and two grandsons.