Elisabeth Galloway Abrahams

1932 - 2025

Elisabeth Galloway Abrahams

January 7, 1932 - June 22, 2025

San Luis Obispo, California - Elisabeth Galloway Abrahams, MA, MFT, LLB of San Luis Obispo passed away at Sierra Vista Hospital on June 22, 2025. At 93, she succumbed to pneumonia, surrounded by a few of the many good friends she cultivated since moving here in the early '90s.

Elisabeth was born in Beckenham, Kent, England as one of the two daughters of Lawrence and Myra Galloway. She and her sister, Margaret, were temporarily re-located to the English countryside as part of Operation Pied Piper during the London Blitz of World War II. Elisabeth earned a teaching degree in England and taught mentally challenged children, as well as dance and yoga. As a young woman, she visited Canada through a connection with a cousin and was impressed. She always had a fondness for Canada and visited there often.

A lifelong lover of dance and a fiercely devoted follower of yoga master, BKS Iyengar, Elisabeth received a grant from the American Association of University Women to study dance therapy at UCLA. She moved to California in the early 1970s.

At UCLA, in addition to dance therapy, she also studied the law and later worked as an assistant to one of the directors of the African Studies Department there. In the 1980s, she met and married Dr. Joseph Abrahams, a ground-breaking forensic psychiatrist. They made their home in La Jolla, CA, and later moved to San Luis Obispo to take positions at Atascadero State Hospital -- he as a psychiatrist, she as a dance and movement therapist.

A passionate community organizer, Elisabeth hosted numerous gatherings at her home for members of the local Democratic Party. She was also a co-founder of Save Our Downtown, a group of local citizens dedicated to preserving the history, character, and productive activity in the city's core.

Upon her retirement, Elisabeth took up playwriting. Her first effort, "Against the Tide," is a portrait of Melanie Hahnemann, wife of the famed founder of homeopathy, Dr. Samual Hahnemann. A strong advocate for the practice of homeopathic medicine, Elisabeth not only wrote but starred in this one-woman show, which ran for five nights at The Edinburgh Festival in 2009.

She and her husband, Joe, travelled extensively, visiting countries in Europe, Asia, and South America all organized and chronicled by the ever-adventurous Elisabeth.

Dancer, teacher, community activist, playwright, wife and friend to many, Elisabeth led a full and richly rewarding life. Allan Cooper, a colleague and longtime friend of Elisabeth's, put it best when he said, "Elisabeth was full of fire, elegance, and jaunty humor; she will be sorely missed by all those who had the privilege of knowing her."