Elizabeth J. Nicholson

Elizabeth J. Nicholson, “Betsy”, born August 28, 1937 in Warren, PA, passed peacefully from the Earth early morning March 20, 2020, age 82, mere hours after vernal equinox (start of Spring), at the Ithaca Hospicare house, surrounded by loving family. Betsy approached her diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer head-on, calling it her “next big adventure!” and, as always, was in charge of making her own difficult decisions all along the way.

Betsy’s was a life of service. After graduating Warren High School (1955) and Gettysburg College (1959), and starting a family, she worked in Child and Family social service positions in and for Tioga County, NY, while residing in Owego and Candor. Once her children were grown and on their own, she enrolled in Syracuse University and received her Masters in Social Work in 1987. She moved to her beloved Ithaca in 1988 and continued her work with family and children services as well as starting her own private practice. She loved donating time to her many volunteer activities, including the Suicide Prevention Hotline, P.E.O. (“Women Helping Women”), the Caring Committee at the First Congregational Church, and Ithaca Hospicare where she was briefly employed as a Social Worker and then lovingly spent time with and made meals for many residents as a volunteer. She also found joy in her part-time work as a leasing agent with the Solomon Organization, where she was loved dearly by her coworkers as well as the residents.

Betsy was an amateur musician and avid music lover, playing the piano, singing alto in many choruses over the years, including the Ithaca Community Chorus and Chamber Singers. She, along with other members of the Chorus, organized a unique exchange program, the RC4, with the Vassilyostrovsky Music School Children's Choir of St. Petersburg, Russia. After visiting Russia themselves and making many meaningful connections there in 1994, this group arranged for the Children's Choir to come to Ithaca in 1995 as a musical cultural exchange, performing for the Ithaca community and exploring American culture for the first time. The Ithaca group returned to Russia several times, reconnecting with the children as they grew into young adults. An opera lover, Betsy was also a prominent figure in bringing the Metropolitan Opera to the Ithaca Regal Cinema, where she and many of her friends enjoyed live simulcasts.

Betsy loved her weekly bridge club gatherings, book club groups, auction outings and community gardening. She was a lover of animals, having rescued many dogs and fed countless birds in her lifetime. Her home was never without a Scrabble game, cribbage board, or the ever-present NYT crossword puzzle (but only the Thursday-Sundays...the others, in her somewhat-joking words, were “too easy and not worth bothering with”). And as anyone who attended them would know, her yard sales were epic. Betsy's sphere of friendship is wide and deep, too vast to be able to mention you all here. Just know that she loved you all and thought of you often.

Betsy was the oldest of five children, pre-deceased by her parents, Nelson A. Johnson and Mary Helen (nee Klingensmith) Johnson, by her younger sister Judith Johnson, and by her second husband, Robert N. Nicholson and his son, John Nicholson. She is survived by her siblings Elsa L. Redding, Nelson A. Johnson II, and Lisa L. Arnold; her three children Jeffrey A. Young, David E. Young, and Janet L. Stratton; her two step-daughters Sue Nicholson and Judy Showers, and by her five grandchildren Zachary M. Stratton, Claire M. Young, Cadence R. Young, Michaela E.Young, and Ryan O. Young.

In lieu of flowers, family and friends may make donations to any of Betsy's favorite local charitable organizations, a few of which include Hospicare, SPCA of Tompkins County, and her favorite, always-on NPR station WSKG. At Betsy's request, there will be no public service, but a private gathering at the family's cottage this summer. Here's to smooth sailing on your next big adventure!

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