The license plate on the back of her car reads “Betty V,” a name thousands of Limestone County residents easily recognizes.

The “V” she says doesn’t really mean or stand for anything although she’s been called that for years. But to some, like Limestone County District 4 Commissioner Bill Daws, it means a good meal.

Betty V, whose real name is Betty Lanham, is known for her cooking.

“It’s just real good country cooking like grandma used to cook,” said Daws. “The way it’s seasoned and flavored, it’s out of this world.”

Betty, who along with husband Dennis, lives on a farm in the Lentzville Community at Hickory Hills and grew up in Limestone County just north of Elkmont. She left for a time to work on a riverboat based out of Puducah, Ky. She was the only lady on the towboat and she was the cook as they traveled the waters from St. Paul, Minn., to Corpus Christie, Texas.

“I just love to cook,” she said. “I like to feed people. It is so hard to get a good meal today.”

She said a lot of her taste comes from her mother, the late Lela Kimbrough.

“She was a good cook, and back then you didn’t know what a restaurant was. You ate at home. I see myself cooking and tasting like she did.”

Betty and Dennis met on the riverboat where they both worked; she was the cook and he was the boat engineer. They fell in love and later married.

“We worked 28 days on and 28 days off,” she said. “I worked on that boat for 20 years and those men treated me like royalty. I was highly respected because they believed you did not mistreat the cook. They let me cook whatever I wanted and they loved it.”

Betty said she’s always been involved in food in some capacity.

While living in Michigan, she worked as a meat wrapper at a big chain grocery and from that job she learned lots of tricks in the meat business.

“The different cuts in meat make a big difference,” she said. “You can tell how good it’s going to be from the cut.”

After the towboat job, Betty moved back to Limestone County in 1991 and opened a restaurant, which she says was her best project.

It was called Betty V’s Pizza, and even though it was way out in the country on Baker Hill Road, she said people came from far and near to taste her pizza.