Elizabeth Ann "Betsy" EASTMAN

EASTMAN, Elizabeth Ann

Betsy, 60, passed away Sept. 11, 2014. Born on April 23, 1954, in Oak Ridge, TN, she lived in the Lehigh Valley in Lanark, PA, before moving with her family to St. Petersburg in 1964. Betsy graduated from Boca Ciega High School in 1972. She played saxophone in the marching band and found lifelong friends in a disruptive clique of brainy Bogie misfits. Betsy earned a BA in History from University of South Florida and a BS in nursing. As a young nurse in the early days of the AIDs crisis, when fear often compromised care, Betsy sought to work with the afflicted. For most of her later career, she worked at Palms of Pasadena Hospital in South Pasadena as a cardiac intensive care nurse. Her mother Jean Lesperance Eastman, father Frederic Bailey Eastman and brother Rick Eastman died before her. She is survived by siblings David Eastman and Susan Eastman, former sister-in-law Judy Eastman, nephew Bryan Eastman and niece Morgan Eastman, of Florida; as well as nephew Eric Wiggins and wife Katie, and nephew Louis Zuckerman, of California. A memorial will be held at the Gulfport Lions Club, 4630 Tifton Drive South at 7 pm, on Oct. 11.