Betsy Burke Jacobson

Elizabeth “Betsy” (Burke) Jacobson, 56, of Marblehead, passed away at her home after a brief and courageous battle with cancer on November 14, 2010. She was the wife of Charles “Chuck” Jacobson with whom she shared 6 years of marriage. Born in Marblehead, she was the daughter of the late Alexander B. and Margaret Reeves Burke.

Betsy graduated from Marblehead High School and the College of the Holy Cross and received her M.B.A. from Salem State College. For much of her career, Betsy worked in the telecommunications industry, retiring from Verizon Information Services as a Market Manager in 2001. Passionate about American art and antiques, Betsy later became Director of the East India Marine Associates program at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem.

Throughout her life, Marblehead anchored Betsy, and she devoted her considerable energy and enthusiasm to the Marblehead Festival of the Arts and the Marblehead Museum & Historical Society; she also served for many years on the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals. Betsy and Chuck greatly enjoyed sailing their sloop Ariana out of Marblehead harbor and shared together many memorable occasions at the Boston Yacht Club, where she served for several years as chair of the Membership Committee.

Among Betsy’s active memberships were the Boston Athenaeum, Historic New England, the American Friends of Attingham, the Old North Church in Marblehead and the Plantation Golf & Country Club at her second home in Venice, Florida.

In addition to her husband, Betsy is survived by her step-daughters, Christina Jacobson Gregory and husband Andrew, and their children Sienna and William of Tampa; and Michelle Jacobson Morley and husband Jameson, and their children Lilly and Lola of Ipswich. She is also survived by her brothers, Alexander B. Burke, Jr. and wife Nancy K. of Byfield, and Richard J. Burke and wife Patricia A. of Cedartown, Georgia; and her sisters Mary Anne Atkins and husband Robert C. of McGaheysville, Virginia, and Margaret Reeves Burke and husband Dennis A. Fiori of Boston. Betsy also leaves many nieces and nephews, including her god-daughter Katherine B Thompson of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

Visiting hours will be held at the Eustis and Cornell Funeral Home, 142 Elm Street, Marblehead from 3-5PM & 6-8PM on Wednesday, November 17. A funeral service and burial in Waterside Cemetery, Marblehead will be private. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in Betsy’s memory to the Hospice of the North Shore, 75 Sylvan Street, Suite B102, Danvers, MA 01923, or to the Old North Church, 8 Stacey Street, Marblehead, MA 01945.