Elizabeth (Beth) Hackendorf Valente was born in Tulsa on December 17, 1907. The Hackendorf family farm was located where TU’s H.A. Chapman Stadium now stands. Tulsa’s Florence Avenue was named after her mother; and her father, William, was a Tulsa school principal. Mrs. Valente attended TU in the 1920s, then transferred to Stanford University, where she earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in English. She was an accomplished artist and a member of Phi Mu Sorority.

She married her husband, Daniel Valente, in the early 1930s and lived in California, where she began a teaching career. In 1934, the couple moved to Tulsa, where Mrs. Valente taught English at Central High School, then at Will Rogers High School before retiring in 1944. She died September 8, 2000, at the age of 93. The Valentes had no children. Her nephew, Donald Valente, served as executor of her estate, which was bequeathed to The University of Tulsa. University administrators chose to honor the memory and generosity of Mrs. Valente through the creation of a Presidential Scholarship Endowment Fund formally known as the Elizabeth H. Valente Presidential Scholarship.