Laura Runke was born in Lawrence County, Missouri on January 27, 1886. She came to the Arizona Territory in 1901 to teach at Blue Canyon School, some 70 miles north of Winslow. The remote government school was in a rocky canyon and served students from both Hopi and Navajo tribes. She married an Indian trader named Samual Scott Preston and lived at the fort-like trading post in Tuba City, where she served as the hostess to visitors (most notably President Teddy Roosevelt).

After living in Tuba City for several decades, Laura and her husband, Samual, moved to Kansas. Samual died sometime in the early 1930s, and Laura decided to return to Flagstaff. She married Flagstaff’s former postmaster Walter Runke Sr. and settled with him in a seven-room cottage, where she “maintained home and fireside in quiet relaxation.”

Mrs. Runke kept busy as an active member of the Flagstaff Women’s Club, Eastern Star, Republican Women’s Club and the Coconino Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (NSFAR). While a member of the NSFAR, she was state Chaplin and chapter conservation chairwoman, making contributions of time and effort to “help aliens prepare for U.S. Citizenship… accept and honor our constitution, and become real naturalized citizens by personal desire and required qualifications.”

Mrs. Runke was also instrumental in securing and planting a cutting of the Cambridge George Washington Elm on the campus of the Arizona State Teacher’s College in 1932 during the Washington Bicentennial tree-planting campaign.

In 1966, at 80 years of age, Mrs. Runke, who was known for many years as Flagstaff City Council’s “principal critic,” ran for a seat on the Council and was elected to a four-year term. She became the first Flagstaff woman to serve on the City Council.

The official photograph taken at the first Council meeting showed a little elderly lady in a white veiled hat, purse and gloves standing with somber suited councilmen and the mayor. She never missed a meeting or an opportunity to give her opinion about fiscal responsibility and the need for less government.

During one active debate on a proposed high-dollar road project, she stopped the action to inquire why a tattered American flag was allowed to fly over the fire station. The road project eventually died, but a new flag was hoisted over the station the next day.

Her Christmas greetings to city employees were sent in the form of a little poem. One particular greeting read:

“Here’s the old woman who lives in her shoe, back with best wished for ’62. Her vision is clear and concise as can be. She ups on the points for the Council to see. Sometimes they smile—sometimes they frown, when discussing business of our little town… Let’s pen these dogs that roam our streets and enforce the law on all the beats…”

Mrs. Runke was against horses being stabled within the city limits, even though the offending horses were often penned at homes outside of downtown; she fussed about the outhouses still standing on many lots in the older sections of town; and she fought to preserve important historical sites from modern development.

In 1970, Mrs. Runke was defeated for reelection to the city council. She decided to run for mayor in 1972 at the age of 86, but was soundly defeated, placing nearly last in the contest. She died eight months later in Kansas, weakened by an earlier fall in her Flagstaff home.

After her death, an editorial appeared in the Arizona Daily Sun praising Mrs. Runke’s passion for her community: “There were many people who hated to see Mrs. Runke coming because they knew they were in for a ‘talking to,’ delivered in such a fashion as to hurt all the way to the marrow of the bones. She could temper biting criticism by reminiscing, almost gently at times, about a time when Flagstaff and the rest of the world was a far less complicated place to live.”

The editorial was a fitting tribute of Mrs. Runke’s dedication to America and her community all of which, according to the editorial, where delivered with vigor and solid conviction.

— Joan Brundige-Baker. Photo courtesy Cline Library Special Collections & Archives, Northern Arizona University.