Masters track and field athlete Betty Lindberg, a centenarian runner who inspired a global community by shattering world records well into her nineties, died on June 14, 2026, at the age of 101. Known as the Running Queen of Atlanta, she became a symbol of tireless perseverance after taking up the sport at an age when many are eyeing retirement.

Betty Ann Reynolds was born on Sept. 7, 1924, and spent her early decades building the steady domestic life that would later make her second act all the more startling. She married H.O. Lindberg in 1948, and by 1951 they had a daughter, Kerry. The family later lived in Bloomington, Minn., after H.O. Lindberg was transferred there, and their son, Craig, was born in 1956. In 1958, they moved to Atlanta when H.O. Lindberg took a job with Northwest Airlines, and Betty later said she still lived in the house they bought a few years later.

In Atlanta, she worked in customer service at Rich's department store at Lenox Square and retired in 1992. She was also active in her children's scouting groups, served as PTA president and served on the council of Peachtree Road Lutheran Church. For years, her life was the kind that runs on schedules, obligations and family calendars, until a Fourth of July morning in 1988 changed the pace entirely.

She began running at 63 after watching the Peachtree Road Race and deciding, in her words, “I can do that; that looks like fun.” She later recalled, “I had no idea what a road race was. Why are people getting up at the crack of dawn on the Fourth of July? When I saw the mass of runners smiling and waving as they approached the finish, though, I said, ‘I can do that; that looks like fun.’” At first, she resisted the idea of entering another race, saying, “Absolutely not. I will not sign up for it. No, I will not.” Then came the competitive streak that would define her late life: “I looked up the 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1500, and I am pretty sure I can beat them.”

She ran her first Peachtree Road Race in 1989 and became a regular participant and volunteer in the event. The race remained a fixture in her life through her 90s, and by age 99 she had finished it 35 times. Her late-career running was not a hobby so much as a redefinition, one that turned a department store worker and church volunteer into a local legend with a stopwatch.

The records followed. At 91, on May 24, 2016, she set a world record in the women's 90-and-older 800 meters in 6:57.56 at an Atlanta Track Club All Comers meet at Emory University. On May 9, 2017, she ran 3:05.01 in the 400 meters, which Atlanta Track Club described as a U.S. national record for the women's 90-plus division. In 2019, she won the women's 90-94 division at the USATF National 5 km Championships in Atlanta. Then, in 2022, at 97, she set the 95-99 age-group world record in the 5K in 55:48.

Her influence spread well beyond the track. Atlanta Track Club sold Be Like Betty T-shirts as a fundraiser for one of its youth programs, a small sign of how thoroughly she had entered the city's civic imagination. After her death, the club called her “a shining light in our community and a living example of what it means to keep moving,” and Rich Kenah, the club's chief executive, said she was “the most positive person I've ever come in contact with.” Lindberg herself seemed amused by the attention. “I'm surprised. I'm honored that they actually come up to me and say, ‘You're my inspiration.’ Why? Just because I'm 101. Big deal,” she said. “I don't know why I'm so lucky that I'm still healthy. But I always say, my motto is ‘You've got to keep moving.’”

That was Betty Lindberg in full: funny, modest, and just competitive enough to turn a casual glance at a road race into a life of records. She did not present herself as a hero. She presented herself as someone who kept moving, and Atlanta, and far beyond it, kept moving with her.