Betty Tisdale's volunteer efforts began long before she ventured into Vietnam in 1961 to save a struggling orphanage.

Newsmaker: Betty Tisdale Residence: Seattle Date of Birth: Sept. 30, 1922 Education: Graduate of St. George High School in 1940 Family: Five daughters, Kim Lan Tisdale, Thuvan DeBellis, Mai Lara Tisdale, Lien Titus and Xuan Fields; and five sons, Neal, James, Sean, Danny and Patrick Tisdale, and 11 grandchildren. In the news: She helps fund overseas orphanages. Quote: "They were left without any help. I decided I was going to go over to Vietnam. So I saved up all my money and ate hot dogs. That changed my life completely."

The Knoxville native, in town tomorrow to celebrate her 65th reunion at St. George High School, read textbooks to blind students at the University of Pittsburgh's law school and played checkers with veterans at the VA Medical Center on Highland Drive, before moving to New York City while in her late 30s.

That move changed her life drastically.

It was there that she took a job as a dictationist for late author Dr. Thomas A. Dooley, who wrote about and worked in Vietnam, setting up small clinics and hospitals to help the country's ailing children. Previously, she had worked for U.S. Steel in Pittsburgh.

Dooley helped to establish the An Lac Orphanage in Saigon. After Dooley's death at age 34, Tisdale took over.

"He had helped the orphanage to move from North Vietnam, fleeing communism, and move to South Vietnam with over 100 cvhildren," Tisdale said. "They were left without any help. I decided I was going to go over to Vietnam, so I saved up all my money and ate hot dogs. That changed my life completely."

Tisdale's high school reunion at St. George will mark the first time the Seattle resident has returned to the area in more than a decade. In April, she completed her 25th visit to Vietnam. At 82, she still is quite busy.

She began her fund-raising efforts as a secretary for Sen. Jacob Javits, R-N.Y. The H.J. Heinz Co. donated baby food and Johnson & Johnson donated diapers that were shipped to An Lac.

"I had a great apartment, great clothes, a great job," Tisdale said. "And [I] had all that without really suffering like these people. I knew there must be some way I could help."

She appealed directly to donors with speeches and phone calls.

"I would tell them about my experience in Vietnam," Tisdale said.

Apparently, she was successful.

"I begged for miles. I have yet to pay for an airline ticket," she said.

On April 12, 1975, Tisdale saved 219 Vietnam orphans during Operation Baby Lift, when thousands of children were evacuated from Saigon because of the approaching Viet Cong.

Tisdale's orphanage was not approved by the U.S. government for evacuation, so she made a call to then-U.S. Ambassador Graham Martin, who was a friend. Martin told her she needed birth certificates for the children, many of whom had arrived at the orphanage with no documentation.

Tisdale went to a nearby hospital and got blank birth certificates and with a doctor filled them out, inventing birth dates and other facts.

All of the children were placed with families in the United States through the Tresler Adoption Agency in York.

Her crusade to save these children also became a part of her family life.

She and her then-husband, Dr. Patrick Tisdale, adopted 11 children -- five boys and six girls -- from Vietnam. One girl died in infancy. Her grown children live in different cities across the country and she has 11 grandchildren.

"That's not a lot for the number of children I have," Tisdale said. "I yell at [my children] all the time."

An Lac has since closed, but that hasn't stopped Tisdale from continuing to provide funding to nine orphanages and a leper colony in Vietnam. Her humanitarian work on behalf of children in developing countries has led her to begin orphanages in Uruapan, Mexico, and Bogota, Colombia. She also has traveled to Afghanistan.

She next wants to make visits to war-torn Iraq and Rwanda, a country that suffered a devastating genocide a decade ago that left nearly 1 million dead.

Tisdale's story has been featured on NBC's "Dateline" and in Reader's Digest. In 2000, she founded Helping and Loving Orphans, a nonprofit organization that works to help children in Third World countries. The organization's Web site is www.bettytisdale.com.

"I hope that whatever I do can inspire somebody else to do the same thing for people in these countries," she said.

In Pittsburgh this week, Tisdale will stay with her sister, Clara Lou Moul, a retired worker for Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., in the same house in which she was raised.

She is anticipating seeing old friends from her tiny class at St. George. She's not sure how many are still around.

"I already have some dinner dates set up with some of my old friends," she said.

"I really don't know how many are left. There were only 35 in our senior class. I think we come from a very strong generation."