Sister Elizabeth Minturn, S.C., a Sister of Charity, Halifax, Nova Scotia, for 64 years, died at Mercy Hospital, Rockville Centre, L.I., May 17. She was 87.
She grew up on Long Island, and graduated from St. Mary’s Grade School, Manhasset, and St. Dominic’s H.S., Oyster Bay.
She received a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Fordham University in 1950. That September, she joined the Sisters of Charity of Halifax.
Formerly Sister Marilyn Elizabeth, she taught fourth and sixth grades at Resurrection-Ascension School, Rego Park, 1953-56, and third through sixth grades at Our Lady of Angels School, Bay Ridge, 1956-65.
She then studied Braille and received a certificate in visual education for the handicapped in 1962. She worked with visually handicapped children in the Brooklyn Diocese from 1965 until the program was discontinued in 1980.
After earning a master’s degree in religious education from Boston College, Mass., in 1969, she worked part-time as a day room coordinator at Menorah Home for the Aged in Brooklyn. During these years, she lived at St. Sebastian’s parish, Woodside; Our Lady of Angels, and St. Paul’s Convent, Cobble Hill.
After a sabbatical in the CREDO program in Spokane, Wash., 1980-81, she returned to teaching: three years in St. Agnes Academy, Bermuda, and a year each in St. Nicholas of Tolentine, Jamaica, and St. Sylvester School, City Line. She retired from teaching in 1986.
In 1984, she moved to the host community of “Women Helping Women,” a shelter for women who had been victims of domestic violence, and served in a variety of capacities there until 1995.
In retirement, she lived at Our Lady of Angels, Bay Ridge, and volunteered at the Maura Clark-Ita Ford Center, Bushwick, tutoring immigrant women in English. In 2000, she moved to St. Aidan’s, Williston Park, and then to St. Barnabas, Bellmore, in 2008.
She is survived by her older brother, Father Joseph Minturn, a retired priest of Rockville Centre, and a sister, Agnes.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated at St. Barnabas Church, Bellmore, May 20. Her brother gave the homily.
Internment followed at St. John’s Cemetery, Middle Village.
