Emma Nelson Harrison Murphy

Emma Nelson Harrison Murphy Emma Nelson Harrison Murphy, 91, died peacefully Wednesday in Austin, where she had lived since 1997. Her family’s roots were in Hewitt and she maintained close ties to Hewitt all her life. She was born May 28, 1913 on her family’s farm, the second of three children of John Hampton Harrison, Jr. and Pauline Vaughn Harrison. She was the valedictorian of her class at The Hewitt School, and continued on to Business College. In the 1930’s, after working several years in Waco at the Pape Cotton Co. and Amicable Life Insurance, she got a job in Washington D.C. at the U.S. Treasury Department. In Washington, she met Edward Joseph Murphy, born in Brooklyn in 1915. They were married in January 1938, in Texas, and returned to Washington, D.C., where their only daughter, Mary Elizabeth was born. The family moved to Midland, Texas in the 1940’s. In Midland, the Murphy’s lived near Emma’s older sister, Ella, and her husband, Charlie Frosch. In the 1960’s the couple moved to Houston; they later built a house in the nearby suburb of Spring. When Edward Murphy retired in the mid-1970’s, they moved back to Waco, where they lived for over 20 years. Emma and Edward Murphy celebrated their 59th anniversary in January 1997. He died later the same month. Emma Murphy loved the company of her family: her husband, daughter, sister, brother, and many aunts, uncles and cousins. She was visually talented, and created things throughout her life: quilts, children’s dresses, pottery, and elaborate dollhouses for her granddaughters. She was an energetic, loving and creative grandmother who was willing to ride bicycles with a pre-teenager, and to spend a hot afternoon with a child, picking wild blackberries from thorny plants. Emma Murphy lived for the last seven years of her life at the Brighton Gardens senior residence in Austin, Texas, near her daughter’s home. Her surviving family wishes to thank Brighton Gardens’ staff for the wonderful care they provided Emma. Emma Murphy is survived by her daughter, Mary Elizabeth Murphy Craddock, and son-in-law, Larry J. Craddock, of Austin, and by granddaughters Ashley Craddock, of Austin, and Blair Craddock, of Modesto, California. Her husband, Edward Joseph Murphy; her sister, Ella Harrison Frosch, and her brother, John Hampton Harrison III, preceded her in death. A graveside service will be held at 1:00 p.m. Friday at Oakwood Cemetery in Waco. There will be a reception at the Hilton Waco, 113 S. University Parks Drive, immediately following the service. Memorials may be sent to the First Methodist Church, 600 S. First Street, Hewitt, Texas 76643, or to Hospice Austin, 4107 Spicewood Springs Road, Austin, Texas 78759. Arrangements by Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home, 3125 N. Lamar, Austin, TX 78705 – (512) 452-8811 You may view memorials online at wcfish.com