LIBBY — It was six funerals in six weeks that prompted Gayla Benefield to lay down her torch a couple of years ago.

Libby’s tireless advocate for justice and health care for asbestos victims was worn out, physically and mentally. She had accomplished a lot, gotten people to listen, moved them to action.

But she’d been at it since 1974 when her father died from asbestos disease.

He and Benefield’s mother were among the more than 300 Libby residents who have succumbed to the razor-sharp asbestos fibers that slowly turn lungs useless.

“That’s when I started fighting them,” Benefield recalled about her years of going up against W.R. Grace & Co., the corporation that operated the vermiculite mine from 1963 to 1990.

Five of those six funerals two years ago were for family members, including two relatives who died on the same day…… (more…)