Obituary for Margaret (Birdie) Isabella Lee Boyce Margaret (Birdie) Isabella Lee Boyce, age 98, Lebanon Valley Home, Annville, PA went to Heaven to join her dearest David on Oct. 8, 2018. Birdie was born to Dr. Charles Marston Lee and Alice Stewart Lee and raised in Beaver Falls, PA.
Birdie was the fourth of the “six little Lees”. Every year the Lee family spent their summers at Chautauqua Institute, New York, enjoying swimming, canoeing, working in opera productions and other cultural and religious pursuits. Birdie graduated from Geneva College in Beaver Falls with a degree to teach English.
During WWII she worked as an American Red Cross Recreation Worker and went to Fort Indiantown Gap. There she met a handsome soldier, David Boyce, whom she soon married, a war-time romance which lasted for the next 63 years. After the War, the Boyces lived in Cleveland while David completed his degree at Case Western Reserve and Birdie taught English at Cleveland College.
Following several years at Columbia University, David entered New Brunswick Theological Seminary. Birdie helped him study Greek and Hebrew there while raising their daughters and working with him as he student-pastored a church. This partnership became the pattern of their lives for the next 35 years as they served three churches in New York and New Jersey until they retired in 1988 from Newtown Reformed Church in Queens, New York.
Birdie and David moved to Palmyra, PA, to be near two of their daughters and continued to serve as volunteer chaplains at Good Samaritan Hospital in Lebanon, pastor-visitors for Trinity UCC in Palmyra, and helped found the Lebanon Habitat for Humanity. In 1999 they moved into Kindred Place in Annville. David passed away in August, 2008.
Birdie moved into the United Church of Christ Lebanon Valley Home in October, 2009. Birdie leaves to celebrate her life – four daughters Jan (Bill) Townsend, Maricopa, AZ; Marti (Greg) Spear, Harrisburg, PA: Kate (Ken) Sampson, Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY; Sabrina (Fen) Chen, Japan/ Sunnyvale, California; six grandchildren, Jill, Michael, Meg, Jennifer, Teresa and Daniel; three great-grandchildren, Brendan, Elizabeth, and Chanel; one sister Ellen Smith, Bloomington, IL; one sister-in-law Ann Lee, Cranberry Twp. , PA; 8 nieces and nephews, and 4 grand dogs.
A private interment will be held at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery. A Memorial service will be announced at a future date. Kreamer Funeral Home in Annville, PA will be handling the arrangements.
Donations in her memory may be made to Lebanon Valley Home, Annville, PA; the Newtown Reformed Church, Elmhurst, NY; Trinity UCC, Palmyra; Kauffman United Methodist Church, Annville, PA; or Geneva College, Beaver Falls, PA. To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Margaret (Birdie) Isabella Lee Boyce please visit our Sympathy Store.
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