Edith J. Murphy

Murphy, Edith Joan (nee Perry)

With sadness and appreciation of a long, well-lived life, the family of Joan Perry Murphy announces her passing at home in Winter Haven, Florida, on November 28, 2017 at 91 years old.

Born May 6, 1926 in Mont Alto, Pennsylvania, she spent the first years of her life living on the campus of the Pennsylvania State Forest Academy, where her father was a professor. The family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee in the early 1930s, and she graduated from Knoxville High School (Class of 1944) where she played leadership roles in the Thespians, Top Hat, and Hiking Clubs. In her senior year, she was awarded Honorary Major in the Junior Unit of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, a role she continued into college at the University of Tennessee. At UT, she joined the Delta Delta Delta Sorority, remaining active as an alumni through most of her life. After marrying Alvin R. Murphy Jr. in 1947, her young family moved to Winter Haven, Florida, where she worked as a medical stenographer for 5 years.

An avid member of the Lake Region Country Club Women's Golf Association, her strategy placed accuracy above distance and won her admiration from her friends, which resulted in a hole-in-one before her powerful driving husband could make his. After the kids left the nest, Joan and her husband took many trips, exploring several countries in Europe and the British Isles. Summers were often spent in Knoxville where she enjoyed gardening, more golf, and family. After her husband's retirement, the couple maintained a summer residence in Blowing Rock, NC in close proximity to many of their friends.

She is predeceased by her parents, George Sargent Perry and Edith May Barshinger, and her siblings Mary (Clifford) Wayland, Katherine (Robert) Newton, Cornelia (Martin) Black, and Robert (Nancy) Perry. Fondly referred to by the nickname she called her mother, "Munno" will be lovingly remembered by her surviving husband of 71 years, Alvin R. Murphy Jr, children Michael Murphy and Catherine (John Manuel) Murphy, grandchildren Kevin Murphy, Steven (Amy) Murphy, Jackson Manuel, and Allison Manuel, and great-grandchildren Jacob and Emma Murphy.

A Celebration of Life service has been set for Saturday, December 16 at Ott-Laughlin Funeral Home, 645 W Central Ave, Winter Haven, FL, beginning at 11:00 AM. The family will have a time for visitation starting at 10:00 AM until the service begins. Interment will be at a later date at Greenwood Cemetery in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Joan loved hiking in Tennessee, so in lieu of flowers, memorials may be given in Joan Murphy's name to the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club, P.O. Box 51592, Knoxville, TN 37950-1592 or http://www.smhclub.org/donor.htm.

As Joan would say when asked if she'd like chocolate for dessert, "You'd better believe it!"