Thelma Margurite (Long) Duffee
Thelma Margurite (Long) Duffee, age 84, recently residing at Oakwood Village in Springfield, passed away on February 20, 2008, at Mercy Medical Center after some recent months of declining health.
She was born in Detroit, Michigan, on January 21, 1924, daughter of Harry Harrison and Elizabeth Shaw (Collins) Long, and spent her youth in Port Huron, Michigan, Steubenville, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
She married James Harvey Duffee in Columbus on March 20, 1947, and they were chosen as one of Columbus's Families of the Year in 1952. During her young married life, due to her husband's severe illness, she was forced to not only pursue a career but also act as head of her family.
She earned a master's degree in nursing from Ohio State University and spent most of her career as a professor of nursing, mostly at OSU, but also at Clemson University in South Carolina and James Madison University in Virginia. She was Director of Nursing at Springfield's Community Hospital during a turbulent period of change in the early 1970s.
She continued to work in nursing in her later years, including at Mental Health Services of Clark County. She was devoted to advancing nursing as a profession and was always the nurse, whether on duty or off. She believed in finding joy in life, whether sledding with her children as a young mother, camping in the Blue Ridge in mid-life, or playing bridge at Elderly United in her later years. Always a vigorous woman, she never believed in slowing down, and was very active in many programs at Elderly United, especially the Keep Moving program.
She was preceded in death by her husband, James, in 1991. She is the last of a close family of brothers and sisters and spouses, and was also preceded in death by her oldest brother (and spouse), John and I.G. Long, by her only sister (and spouse), Helen and Robert Williams, and by her closest brother (and spouse), Harry and Evie Long.
Though a devoted mother and grandmother, she was also fiercely independent, and passed on to her children a sense of independence of thought and spirit along with the high ideals of the Enlightenment.
She is survived by her son, James Duffee, M.D., and wife Jill Campbell Duffee of Springfield; son Daniel Duffee of Yellow Springs; son David Duffee and wife Donna Eder of Bloomington, In.; son Tom Duffee and wife Linda Scutt of Springfield; grandchildren Kristin (Campbell) Bottelier, Allison Campbell, Michael Campbell, Megan (Eder) Chafin, Robin Duffee, Asa Duffee; great grandchildren Matthew Salazar, Samuel Salazar, Sophia Bottelier; nephews and nieces John Long and Karen (Long) Miller; Bob, Larry, Tim, and Elizabeth Williams; Becky Long, Nancy (Long) Hamilton, and Janice Long; also many friends at Elderly United and Oakwood Village.
A memorial service for Thelma will be held in the Community Room at Oakwood Village, 1500 Villa Rd. at 2:00 P.M. on Saturday March 1.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Thelma's name to the Elizabeth Shaw Long Scholarship Fund at Ohio State University, 2021 Coffey Rd., Columbus, OH, 43210 or to the Rocking Horse Center, 651 S. Limestone St., Springfield, OH, 45505.
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