Mrs. Elizabeth P. Wilburn

September 15, 1918-November 21, 2020

When “Betsy” was born in 1918, World War I was ending, a pandemic was raging, and women were still waiting for the right to vote. She grew up in the Windsor Hills section of Baltimore, the daughter of Maryland State Forester Karl Pfeiffer, and his Cornell classmate Annie Bullivant Pfeiffer. Betsy’s older brother, Oscar, a Navy pilot, was killed in a 1942 crash. Her younger sister, Mary Clare Pfeiffer Vanderploeg, remained Betsy’s best friend, until Mary Clare’s death in 2003.

Betsy graduated in 1936 from the all-girls Western High School in downtown Baltimore. She earned a bachelor’s degree at the Connecticut College for Women, and pursued graduate studies in social work at the University of Chicago.

In 1944, Betsy married Navy pilot William (Bill) C. Wilburn, best friend to her brother Oscar. Bill’s military career took the family to Washington DC, California, Ohio, Rhode Island, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Paris, France, before retiring in Fort Worth, Texas. While in Fort Worth, Betsy held leadership

positions in garden clubs, the Opera Guild and St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church. They relocated to Baltimore, where Bill passed in 2006.

Betsy is survived by their three children: Anne Wilson of Brooklyn, New York; William (Carol) Wilburn of Chevy Chase, Maryland; Richard (Karen) Wilburn of Las Vegas, Nevada; eight grandchildren: Fred Gravenson and Carrie Gravenson of New York City; Frances Wilburn (Robert Christoffel) of Washington DC; William Alexander (Mira) Wilburn of Bethesda, Maryland; Jacqueline Wilburn of New York City; Jessica (John Matthew) Antel of Houston, Texas; Susan (Ryan) Vaughan of Oak Park, California; Larissa (Cole) South of San Diego, California; and seven great grandchildren.

Elizabeth Pfeiffer Wilburn is remembered for her love of reading, opera and gardening, and most of all, for her unshakable grace. She passed peacefully at her residence in Roland Park Place, Baltimore, Maryland at the age of 102.

Services and burial at Green Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, are postponed until travel and gathering are once again safe.