Elizabeth M. Larrabee

Born November 8, 1928, in Sanford, Florida, to Thomas Hearn Johnson and Theodora Louise Miller, Betty was raised in Arno, Tennessee, by her father and paternal grandparents. At the age of sixteen, she moved to Lake Park, Florida, to live with her mother and stepfather, Harold J. Powers. In 1947, she graduated from Palm Beach High School, where she met her future husband, Edward C. Larrabee. They married in 1950 at St. Ann Catholic Church and raised five children, celebrating sixty-six years of marriage before he passed in 2016.

Betty believed in the importance of education and the power of the written word. She pursued both these passions by expanding and professionalizing the library at St. Juliana Catholic School, where she served as librarian from 1972 to 1993. She took the library from a volunteer-run part-time enterprise to a professionally managed resource available to students every day of the week, while continuing her own education in library science at Palm Beach Community College and Florida Atlantic University.

Betty was a creative person, so she not only read poetry and history, her two favorite genres, but wrote her own verse and delved into family history. She often recited stanzas from the works of Edgar Allen Poe and Lewis Carroll from memory when she felt it suited the occasion. Her lifelong interest in genealogy was well-known, and she spent many happy hours researching family history at the Miami-Dade Public Library with like-minded friends. One of her legacies is the research material she collected for her family to learn from and treasure.

Family was also very important to Betty, and the home she and Ed made became the locus for family gatherings. Her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren remember fondly the many outings she took them on and the time she spent with them. Betty passed on the value of family to her loved ones, and through them, she lives on.

She was predeceased by her husband of sixty-six years, Edward C. Larrabee, and is survived by their children and their spouses: Roxana Coleman (William, deceased), Barbara Haag (James, deceased), Sylvia Stearn (Mitchell, deceased), Denise Larrabee (Kevin O’Donovan), and Mark Larrabee; grandchildren and their spouses/partners: Victoria Bennett (Joseph Miller, deceased), Theresa Bennett Hill (Shay), Dena Coleman (Dennis Chandler), Clinton Larrabee (Leanne), Jeffrey Salazar, Olivia Stearn, Anna Stearn, Desmond O’Donovan, and Ethan Larrabee; great-grandchildren Emma Hill and Emalee Hunter; and step-grandsons Robert and Michael Haag and their families. She was also predeceased by her brother Theodore Powers and is survived by her brother Graham Johnson (Jackie) and many nieces and nephews.

Funeral Services will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 2, 2026, at Quattlebaum Funeral Home, 6411 Parker Avenue, West Palm Beach, with interment to follow in Hillcrest Memorial Park, adjacent to the funeral home. All are invited to a reception at the on-site event center immediately following the interment. In lieu of flowers, please send donations in memory of Elizabeth Larrabee to the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County or the Palm Beach Zoo and Conservation Society.