Elizabeth
Elizabeth L. "Betty" Murphy
d. August 6, 2013
Elizabeth "Betty" Love Murphy, age 97, died August 6, 2013 at Hammond-Henry hospital after a brief illness.
Private funeral services will be held and burial will be at Western Township Cemetery. Kirk, Huggins & Esterdahl Funeral Home, Ltd. is assisting the family with arrangements.
Betty was born on May 27, 1916 in East Moline the daughter of Dr. Henry J. and Amanda Hoeltje Love. Her mother was the visiting nurse in Silvis for many years and her father was an East Moline physician and surgeon who drowned with his son, John, in the Mississippi River. Her sister, Maryellen Love, died in Ithaca New York in 1957. She married Blakely Murphy in 1944 and he preceded her in death in October of 1987.
Betty graduated from Moline High School and received her Bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa and went on to earn her Master's degree from Northwestern University where her thesis was written on Interest Inventories of First Grade Children, in which she researched the interests of young children to apply learning to topics in which children already had foundations. Mrs. Murphy went on to teach first grade at the Roosevelt School on Chicago's south side for six years.
Betty lived a very full life; she kept a diary for many years, recorded family trees and managed the centennial family farm. She lived in London, England, Chicago, Silvis, Moscow Idaho, Knoxville Tennessee, Oklahoma City and Ventura California in various times of her life, until moving to Orion in 1958. She was a member of the Orion Methodist Church, the Rock Island Humane Society and the Acres for Wildlife conservation group. She indexed the book Conservation of Oil & Gas, A Legal History.
Growing up Betty had many serious illnesses in her life and at one time made a pact with God that if he would just let her live she would "Do good deeds and go to church"; that was in 1956 and she lived on even though she admittedly did not always keep her promise.
She was always seeking a meaning in life and perhaps for it best in walks on the farm and loving nature. She believed that eternal life is directly through children and grandchildren. But perhaps individual souls escape into a vast mystery of infinity.
Besides her diaries she compiled the Greatest of All Great Books, an anthology of favorite quotations and wrote life stories of her grandparents for her family.
They had one son, Henry (Betty) Murphy, and two grandchildren, Brian Murphy and Brenda (fiancé Travis Merle) Murphy.
Online condolences may be left for Betty's family by visiting her obituary at www.esterdahl.com
Private funeral services will be held and burial will be at Western Township Cemetery. Kirk, Huggins & Esterdahl Funeral Home, Ltd. is assisting the family with arrangements.
Betty was born on May 27, 1916 in East Moline the daughter of Dr. Henry J. and Amanda Hoeltje Love. Her mother was the visiting nurse in Silvis for many years and her father was an East Moline physician and surgeon who drowned with his son, John, in the Mississippi River. Her sister, Maryellen Love, died in Ithaca New York in 1957. She married Blakely Murphy in 1944 and he preceded her in death in October of 1987.
Betty graduated from Moline High School and received her Bachelor's degree from the University of Iowa and went on to earn her Master's degree from Northwestern University where her thesis was written on Interest Inventories of First Grade Children, in which she researched the interests of young children to apply learning to topics in which children already had foundations. Mrs. Murphy went on to teach first grade at the Roosevelt School on Chicago's south side for six years.
Betty lived a very full life; she kept a diary for many years, recorded family trees and managed the centennial family farm. She lived in London, England, Chicago, Silvis, Moscow Idaho, Knoxville Tennessee, Oklahoma City and Ventura California in various times of her life, until moving to Orion in 1958. She was a member of the Orion Methodist Church, the Rock Island Humane Society and the Acres for Wildlife conservation group. She indexed the book Conservation of Oil & Gas, A Legal History.
Growing up Betty had many serious illnesses in her life and at one time made a pact with God that if he would just let her live she would "Do good deeds and go to church"; that was in 1956 and she lived on even though she admittedly did not always keep her promise.
She was always seeking a meaning in life and perhaps for it best in walks on the farm and loving nature. She believed that eternal life is directly through children and grandchildren. But perhaps individual souls escape into a vast mystery of infinity.
Besides her diaries she compiled the Greatest of All Great Books, an anthology of favorite quotations and wrote life stories of her grandparents for her family.
They had one son, Henry (Betty) Murphy, and two grandchildren, Brian Murphy and Brenda (fiancé Travis Merle) Murphy.
Online condolences may be left for Betty's family by visiting her obituary at www.esterdahl.com
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