featured}
History Happened Here
Elizabeth Pinkerton Written by Rebecca Davis
Elizabeth Pinkerton, also known as “Betty”, is well known as the Elk Grove historian, educator, author and overall knowledgeable person for Elk Grove, its surrounding area and residents current and past. Elizabeth has written and published two volumes of Elk Grove history through Laguna Publishers, entitled History Happened Here, book 1 - River, Oaks, Gold; and History Happened Here, book 2 - Fields, Farms, Schools. She gained knowledge about the material from local and past citizens of the Elk Grove area.
Elizabeth with Marielle Tsukamoto
She also co-authored a book called We the People, A Story of Internment in America along with Mary Tsukamoto regarding the Japanese Internment Camps as it relates to the Florin and Elk Grove area families of Japanese descent. Marielle Tsukamoto, Mary’s daughter, frequently references the book during her talks and presentations all over the nation to students and avid history buffs regarding the Japanese life in the Internment Camps in the United States.
Elizabeth sells her books at various events throughout the Elk Grove area such as, Strauss Festival, Dicken’s Faire, Multicultural 56. ardentforlife.net - winter 2020
Event in Elk Grove Regional Park, and any gathering about town. This includes selling at the Elk Grove Unified School District board meetings and at Elk Grove City Council meetings. Through the hundreds of books that have been sold, she donates the entire sales of the books to scholarships through the Elk Grove Regional Scholarship Foundation for local high school seniors. To date, she has given out over 75 - $1,000 scholarships from the sales of the books she has authored and co-authored.
In 1983, Elizabeth began to write history articles about the past and present for The Elk Grove Citizen called “History Happened Here” which is published in the Friday edition of the newspaper. She has helped put together an Elk Grove History Week, that takes place the end of September, honoring several past sites and groups. Elizabeth also writes about “Local Leaders” of Elk Grove for this magazine. Although Elizabeth is not a native Elk Grove resident, she has lived in Elk Grove since 1962. At that time she began working as a teacher for the Elk Grove Unified School District (noting the school district had unified in 1959).
Elizabeth has given out over 75 - $1,000 scholarships from the sales of the books she has authored and co-authored.
Elizabeth donates the entire sales of her books to scholarships through the Elk Grove Regional Scholarship Foundation