SMITH, Lillian Maud Burkholder

The Arizona 3/28/2010 Smith, Lillian Maud Burkholder, 101, passed away Sunday, March 21, 2010 at Phoenix Mountain Nursing Center. She was born January 17, 1909 to Joseph and Maude Miller in Golden Prairie, Wyoming. Growing up as a farm girl in upstate New York, she entered Cornell University at age 16 where she met and married Paul Burkholder. For many years she worked with him in microbiology at Yale University where they discovered the antibiotic chloramphenicol and an oral medication to treat B12 deficiency and pernicious anemia. They continued research in marine biology and search for cancer treatments at several other institutions including University of Georgia, Columbia University-Lamont Laboratories, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, University of Puerto Rico, and College of the Virgin Islands. After her husband's death, she lived in Hawaii and at age 80 and married a former college sweetheart, Marvin Smith, in 1989. They resided in Portland, Oregon, until his death. She is survived by sons Franz, Peter and Karl Burkholder; eight grandchildren Conrad, Brenda, Diana, Thor, Kristen, Lisanne, Briana, and Christy; and two great grandchildren Tyler and Julia.