Chlorine Hill Murphy

Kill Devil Hills – Chlorine Hill Murphy was born in Suffolk, VA, on July 30, 1922. She married James Franklin Murphy in 1941 at a ceremony held at Bay Cliff on the James in Isle of Wight County, the home of her parents Rowland Braxton and Chlorine Liverman Hill.  Preceded in death by her husband of fifty-four years, Chlorine died peacefully at home in Kill Devil Hills, NC on May 21, 2018.  Survivors include daughter, Mary Lynn Murphy of Newport News; daughter and son-in-law, Dinah M. and Robert L. “Bob” Everett of Smithfield, VA; and grandson, R. Lee Everett of New York City.

Chlorine was a graduate of Smithfield High School where she enjoyed playing on the tennis and basketball teams.  Soon after graduation and marriage, she became an Army wife during WWII while her husband served in the European Theater with the 252nd Engineer Combat Battalion.  She and Jim made Suffolk their home until a dream that began the 1960’s became a reality.  In the early ‘70’s plans were formulated, and construction started on their retirement home on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Home was the heart of life for Mother.  She would rather have been at home than anywhere else.  Home was a haven of calm, order, assurance, nourishment, dreams, advice, rest and unconditional love . . .  always a place of welcome for family and friends.  Mother considered parenting and homemaking her most important jobs.  She loved to use her sewing skills creating window treatments, bed skirts, and fashions for her girls.  There were Christmas gifts to make and paintings to put on canvas, pickles to process, a yard to maintain, meals to plan, cupcakes to bake for local police and firemen, and schedules to keep up with for her family.  She made the best fried chicken and potato salad ever.  On occasion there were little girls to get well; the process always included chicken and rice soup, lots of fluids, back scratches, and fresh air.  You knew you were better when your bedroom had to be “aired out” and clean sheets were brought in.  You could spend that afternoon in the living room choosing programs to watch from a list of two, then three, stations.  Dinner was a special meal of mashed potatoes and hamburger.

Her nurturing expanded into the community as she led Brownies and Girl Scouts to achieve, served as room mother and PTA member, helped sponsor Junior Hundred (a youth dance club), helped organize the Suffolk Swim Club, served on the Board of Directors of the Louise Obici Memorial Hospital Women’s Auxiliary, collected donations during annual neighborhood March of Dimes drives, served on the Board of Directors of the American Red, Cross and  was chairman of the Red Cross Youth Program, was an active member of the Suffolk Christian Church and later Kitty Hawk United Methodist Church, volunteered for the Nags Head Woods Nature Conservancy, helped organized a neighborhood watch program in her Kill Devil Hills community, and served on the KDH 50th Anniversary Celebration Committee.  Not many people know that when Mother was eight years old, she even saved the life of a playmate who was sinking in the water and quicksand after falling into an inlet of Suffolk’s Lake Cohoon.  In 1996 she was thrilled and her family proud, when she received the honor of being enrolled in the Order of Kentucky Colonels for her service and accomplishments on behalf of others.

Always understanding, gentle, and caring, she was a devoted daughter, sister, wife, mother, mother-in-law and grandma . . .  a blessing to her family and friends.  A celebration of Chlorine’s life will be held at Kitty Hawk United Methodist Church during the summer.

The family thanks Chlorine’s neighbors, caregivers, medical, pharmacy, and emergency professionals, Dare Home Health and Transportation, and Gallop Funeral Services, Inc.  All enabled her to remain at home throughout her elder years and provided her family with immeasurable support.

A Celebration of Chlorine Hill Murphy and her new life in Christ will be held Thursday, July 12, at 2:00 in the afternoon at Kitty Hawk United Methodist Church, 803 Kitty Hawk RD, Kitty Hawk, NC  27949. Followed by a reception in Fellowship Hall

In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made to Kitty Hawk United Methodist Church.

Condolences to the family may be expressed via the online register at www.gallopfuneralservices.com. Gallop Funeral Services, Inc. was entrusted with arrangements.