Elizabeth Morrill Boniface died on August 25, 2015, in McKinney, Texas. She was born in El Paso on June 23, 1927, at the Masonic Hospital, the daughter of Mary Elizabeth and Joseph Lemuel Morrill. Beegee, as she was called, graduated from Winchester Cooley School and El Paso High School. She attended the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy for two years and was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. Beegee held a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from the University of Missouri, Columbia. She married Ens. John G. Boniface on June 6, 1945, in Annapolis, Maryland. Navy life took them to twenty-seven towns and cities from coast to coast, and to the Philippine Islands. Beegee was trained as a Red Cross Gray Lady, and also worked as a Staff Aide and Volunteer for twenty years in Army and Naval Hospitals. Upon retirement from the Navy, the Bonifaces returned to El Paso. She was a docent at the El Paso Zoo and president of the Retired Officers' Wives Club at Fort Bliss. The lure of trout streams and mountains took them to Northern New Mexico, where they built a log home in 1984. They moved to McKinney, Texas in 2002, where their daughter lives. Beegee was a member of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, the John Abston Chapter of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Solomon Bostick Chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, and the University of Missouri Alumni Association.
She is survived by her daughter, Elizabeth (Betsy) Hurst and husband, COL B.R. Hurst, USA (Ret.) of McKinney; sons Cdr. John M. Boniface, USN (Ret.) and wife, Kim, of San Jose, CA and Capt. William Boniface, USN (Ret.) and wife, Susan, of Hummelstown, PA; eight grandchildren; twenty-one great-grandchildren; and brother, LTC Donald P. Morrill, USA (Ret.) and wife, Jeanene of El Paso.
Beegee was preceded in death by her husband, Capt. John G. Boniface, USN (Ret.).
A memorial service will be held 1:00 p.m., Tuesday, September 1, 2015 at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 400 N. College Street, McKinney, Texas 75069.
Services will be held at her husbands' gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date.