Elizabeth Mary Price ate a bowl of her favorite ice cream on Saturday evening and shared her final moments with her seven children on Sunday, November 19, 2017. She died peacefully Sunday night, wrapped in a comfortable blanket in her bedroom, with her head tilted slightly toward the lake that surrounded her Pemberton, NJ home. “That’s God,” she would have said. She was 93.
“Betty,” as she was fondly known, grew up in Philadelphia in the 1930s and 40s. She lived next door to the late James J. Price, Sr., who she later married. “Jimmy” died in 2012. Betty was the daughter of the late Peter and Jessica Murphy Austin and sister of the late Madeline Repko and Mary Power. She was a graduate of St. Hubert’s High School for Girls, class of 1941.
On December 7th Betty would have been 94. Seven, she liked to say, was her lucky number. She and her late husband moved to Levittown in 1955, where they raised seven children. All told, she lived in seven New Jersey and Pennsylvania homes and spent her golden years in a lake home with a 537 street address. She will be buried with Jimmy, in the 7th section at Washington Crossing National Cemetery.
Betty was a woman of great faith – in the power of God, in the potential of her children, in the ability of a few sweets or dollar bills to lighten somebody’s day. She was a former communicant of Queen of the Universe Parish in Levittown and then St. Ann’s Parish in Pemberton when she moved there in 1981.
She didn’t want for much, save a good cheesecake recipe, an Eagles win, or for one of her 15 grandchildren to come racing through the side door. She was a talented seamstress and found great joy in watercolor painting, gardening and writing poetry.
Betty is survived by her dear children, Dennis, Gail, Luann, Jimmy, Bobby, Carol and Terri, and their spouses, her 2 sisters, Jeanette and Rita, and their husbands. Along with her 15 grandchildren, she is also survived by her 9 great grandchildren. Betty’s family is grateful to Lois Graham, who lovingly cared for Betty in her later years.
Relatives and friends are invited to attend Betty’s viewing on Thursday evening November 30, from 6:00pm to 8:00pm and on Friday morning December 1, from 7:45am to 8:30am at the Joseph A. Fluehr III Funeral Home at 800 Newtown-Richboro Rd. in Richboro, and to her Funeral Mass 9:00am at the Olde Church of St. Andrew 135 Sycamore St. Newtown. Interment will follow in Washington Crossing National Cemetery, Newtown, PA.
In lieu of flowers, contributions in Betty’s memory may be made to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research, 125 S. 9th St. Suite 202, Phila, PA 19107.
