Nancy Julia Tate

A visitation for Nancy will be held Sunday, July 30, 2023 from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Murphy Funeral Homes, 4510 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22203. A memorial gathering will occur Sunday, July 30, 2023 from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM, 4510 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22203. A funeral service will occur Monday, July 31, 2023 from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM at St. Agnes Catholic Church, 1910 N Randolph St, Arlington, VA 22207.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.murphy-funeralhomes.com for the Tate family.

Nancy Julia Tate, a long-time resident of Niantic, Connecticut, died July 23, 2023 at INOVA Fairfax Hospital in Fairfax, VA. The cause of death was heart failure.

Nancy was born in New York City on May 21, 1932, the oldest child of Joseph and Carmela DeFilippi. She graduated from Albertus Magnus College with a degree in chemistry and went on to get a masters degree in education from Columbia University. She got a job as a lab tech at Pfizer in New York City, where she met her future husband — her boss, Bryce Tate. Many decades later, during the COVID pandemic, she was happy to get the Pfizer vaccine, telling everyone at the clinic that she had worked at Pfizer and married her boss. “There was a lot of chemistry in the lab,” she quipped.

Nancy moved to Niantic with her husband shortly after their marriage. Bryce had been transferred to Pfizer’s research facility in Groton, and Nancy was a homemaker and mother to her two children. When her children were high school age, she became a substitute teacher in the East Lyme school system. Always outgoing, she found the job satisfying. She loved the energy of the students and the camaraderie of the teachers.

When her beloved Bryce passed away in 1988, she looked for ways to manage her grief and fill her time. She became active in local theater, including the East Lyme Arts Council, performing in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, and also playing the role of Mrs. Mullins in Carousel.

She moved to Arlington, VA in 1999 to be closer to her daughter, Deborah Tate. She was active in an Ivy college social group and enjoyed travel.

She is survived by her daughter, her son, Stephen Tate, grandchildren Kristin and Austin Tate, three great grandchildren, four nieces, four nephews, and sister Angela Errico. Besides her husband, Bryce, she is predeceased by her brothers John DeFilippi and Joseph DeFilippi, Jr.

Memorial donations may be made to the American Heart Association.