Elizabeth A. Phipps

Betty had a long and interesting life. She was born in Presho, South Dakota where her grandparents were pioneers. She often rode horseback to school in good weather and was taken by a team of horses pulling a sleigh through snow in winter. When she was in her teens, her parents moved her and her sister to Fairfax County, Virginia, where they operated a dairy farm. She was friends with John Warner who later became a United States Senator. Betty attended George Washington University in Washington D.C. while working for a prestigious law firm in D.C. She received her B.A. in Political Science in 1945 and her Masters in Political Science in 1948, choosing United States immigration policy during World War II as the subject of her Master’s thesis. She enjoyed social events including parties and dances at the University as well as at various foreign embassies in D.C. She had many grim stories to tell about the European refugees who passed through the law firm desperate to immigrate to the U.S. in order to escape the Nazis. Among the other interesting people she met while working at the firm were: Charles Evans Hughes, Andre Gromyko (who gave her a copy of the Russian Constitution), Senator and Mrs. Robert Taft, Hugh Auchincloss and Madam Chiang Kai-Shek. Her favorite famous person was Eleanor Roosevelt whom she happened to encounter at a bus stop where the two had a pleasant and informal conversation. She was a highly educated and sophisticated woman especially for the 1940's. Until extreme old age she remained devoted to political science and contemporary American history and took pleasure reading biographies of Truman, Marshall and LBJ. She married her high school sweetheart, Gabriel Dumaine, a pilot during WW II who was shot down over Europe but managed to survive to come home and marry Betty. Unhappily, he died young. In 1956 she married Bayne Phipps, who owned a vending machine business in D.C. Bayne sold the business and he and Betty moved to Orlando in the late 50's in order to be near Bayne’s daughters in Miami. She and Bayne had two daughters of their own: Elizabeth Jean Phipps (who died at 28) and Joyce Lee Phipps. Joyce is an architect in Orlando; stepdaughter Linda Phipps is a lawyer in Maitland , Fl.; stepdaughter Barbara Phipps retired from SunTrust and lives in Alabama. Bayne died in 1971. After his death Betty worked in an insurance agency in order to support her daughters. She and her girls remained close to Linda and Barbara. She remained in the home in Orlando that she and Bayne had bought until February 2005 when she moved into Lutheran Towers where she was living when she died some 8 years later. In the years just prior to moving to Lutheran Towers Betty took up ball room dancing at the urging of Joyce. Dancing became favorite activity and she loved dressing up, fixing her hair and nails and makeup. Into her 80s, she was a gorgeous figure on the dance floor. She was a hardworking, devoted single mother and an exemplary stepmother. She is survived by daughter Joyce and stepdaughters Linda and Barbara. A funeral service will be held at Carey Hand Colonial Funeral Home, 2811 Curry Ford Road, Orlando, on Thursday, October 10, at 12 noon. Interment to follow at Woodlawn Memorial Park, Gotha, Florida.