Elizabeth Ahlquist, 97, loved family, bridge and the open road
She learned early that life was a game of chance, but also grasped how to win with the cards she was dealt, too.
Elizabeth Ahlquist, a longtime Avondale Estates resident, Navy veteran and retired assistant postmaster, died Tuesday of congestive heart failure. She was 97. The funeral was held Friday at A.S. Turner and Sons Funeral Home, Decatur.
The youngest of three daughters, Mrs. Ahlquist was born in Camden, S.C. Her parents died when she was in her teens and she moved in with a sister. When World War II broke out, she joined the Navy and spent two years in Jacksonville, where she met the Marine who would become her husband.
She and Ernest Ahlquist wed and soon started a family. According to her son, Ernest Ahlquist Jr., his sister, Adele Ahlquist Long, was born while their father was fighting in the Pacific.
After their father returned in 1945, the family went back to South Carolina, where Ernest Sr. was a sales rep. By the time the family eventually moved to Atlanta in 1956, Mr. Ahlquist had become a regional sales manager for his company. But when Mrs. Ahlquist was 45, her husband died and with two children to support, she took a job with the post office in Avondale Estates.
She soon became a fixture in town. "Everybody knew her," recalled her son. .
By the time she retired as assistant postmaster in 1981, Mrs. Ahlquist had developed a taste for travel as well as for contract bridge. She renewed ties with a cousin who was retired pilot and the pair eventually ventured to China, New Zealand, Hawaii, Alaska and Moscow.
Ran Bransford of Avondale Estates first met her friend over a bridge table. She also became Mrs. Ahlquist's travel partner and over the years, the twovisited Panama City, North Carolina and Orleans, France.
Her true passion, though, was contract bridge.
"She was extremely independent and very strong-willed," recalled Ms. Bransford. "And she would do anything to get to a bridge table." Ernest Jr. remembered at least one session at his home that lasted from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
For the past two years, Mrs. Ahlquist lived with her daughter. Ms. Bransford recalled playing cards earlier this year at Mrs. Long's home.
"She was sharp as a tack and she would win. I think the last time we played, she took our money," she said.
Fellow bridge fan and Avondale Estates resident Rutledge Gross called Mrs. Ahlquist "the cutest thing in the United States." She said she was hosting a bridge game about seven years ago and learnedt Mrs. Ahlquist was having a birthday the day of the game.
"I had to pick my teeth off the floor when they told me how old she was," she recalled. "She was bright and cute and fun. She was always a lady. And I thoroughly enjoyed putting my feet under a bridge table with her."
Ernest Jr. called his mother "independent as they come." Mrs. Ahlquist also knew her way around a kitchen. Known as "Mammaw" to her family, she enjoyed making Sunday dinner for her clan. Her specialties included country friend steak.
Mrs. Ahlquist was a member of Avondale Estates First Baptist Church, the Avondale Estates Garden Club and the city's Woman's Club.
In addition to her son, Ernest Jr., of Decatur, and daughter, Mrs. Long, of Braselton, she is also survived by two grandchildren.
