Elizabeth Manugian

1951 - 2022

Elizabeth Manugian died on December 23, 2022, in her Memphis home at the age of 71. She was characterized by her absolute love of life, friends, family, and nature. Liz touched everyone she met with her magnetic personality, sharp wit, and sophisticated spirit.

Liz was born to the late Suzanne and Garbis Keljik on September 1, 1951 in London, England. She attended Heathfield school, where she enjoyed playing lacrosse. She then went on to university at King's College in London, where she majored in French and Portuguese, studying and teaching abroad in Paris and Portugal.

After university, Liz eagerly entered the workforce as a buyer for Lilywhites, a London-based sports goods store, where she demonstrated an acumen for trade that she learned from her father. Liz met her husband Arsen Manugian in London in 1972, married in 1975, and after a honeymoon in Asia, the two moved to Memphis, Tennessee for Arsen to complete his Orthopedic studies at the Campbell Clinic.

Liz eagerly integrated herself into her new Memphis home, working at WKNO, meeting new friends that would last her lifetime, and learning from them how to be an American. She demonstrated a strength of character by frequently traveling back and forth to support her ailing father in London, as she would decades later for her mother.

After the birth of her children Suzanne and Andrew in the mid 80s, Liz dedicated the remainder of her life to being a devoted and loving mother. Liz threw herself into the upbringing of her two children, Suzanne and Andrew, meshing strict sensibilities instilled in her by her own parents with her own personal sense of education: visits to natural history museums, botanic gardens, art galleries, and vacations home to Europe.

To borrow one of Liz's favorite garden quotes, "To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow." With her deep passion for the natural world and her spiritual connection to animals and plants, Liz lived her life like she gardened - with great preparation, determination, imagination, and love. She was connected in horticultural circles, melding English sensibilities with careful research of native flora to craft a one-of-a-kind sanctuary in her Memphis home. Liz loved the Dixon where she found kindred spirits over volunteer events planting bulbs and attending horticultural seminars. Her garden is her legacy: a space of inimitable beauty, drama, respect, and imagination filled with rivers of stone, refuges for animals, and carpets of moss.

Liz is survived by her husband Arsen Manugian, her two children Suzanne and Andrew Manugian, her brother Christopher Keljik, and her pets Siggy, Cleo, and Skadi.

The family requests any memorial donations be directed to the Dixon Gallery and Gardens of Memphis, Tennessee.