Elizabeth Mitchell Beatty, 100, expert flower arranger

Contact staff writer Sally A. Downey at 215-854-2913 or sdowney@phillynews.com.

by Sally A. Downey Elizabeth "Bishie" Mitchell Beatty, 100, an award-winning flower arranger and community volunteer, died Thursday, May 13 at Beaumont, a retirement community in Bryn Mawr. Mrs. Beatty won awards and gave seminars and lectures on flower arranging while living in Detroit; Annapolis, Md.; Washington; Key West, Fla.; and Bryn Mawr. In Annapolis, she was active in the restoration of the historic Paca House and Garden. Later, while living in Washington, she was regional director of the National Cathedral Association and arranged flowers in the cathedral as a member of its Flower Guild. After becoming one of the original residents of Beaumont in 1988, Mrs. Beatty joined the Garden Club of Philadelphia and continued to be involved with the National Cathedral Flower Guild. In 1996, when she was 86, she was among the volunteers who assembled the guild's entry for the Philadelphia Flower Show. The exhibit was a small-scale re-creation of the National Cathedral, complete with 12-foot spires on either side of an archway covered with roses, lilies, delphiniums, and greenery. Mrs. Beatty's personal contributions to the exhibit were two floral kneeling cushions. The guild earned special recognition from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society for the display, which was voted that year's most popular flower show visitors. Mrs. Beatty was a consultant for subsequent guild flower show entries, including a 1999 re-creation of the National Cathedral's rose window done in flowers echoing the jewel tones of stained glass. She continued to give flower-arranging seminars and lectures into her 80s, her son George said, and arranged all the flowers in the public spaces at Beaumont into her 90s. A native of Princeton, Mrs. Beatty married Harold A. Beatty in 1930. While he pursued a career as a research chemist with Ethyl Corp. in Detroit, Mrs. Beatty served on the board of the Detroit Institute of Arts; headed the Michigan chapter of the National Cathedral Association; chaired the Detroit chapter of the Seeing Eye; and in the 1950s and 1960s operated a women's clothing boutique in Grosse Pointe Farms. She and her husband moved to Maryland in 1968 and later lived in Washington. When he died in 1984, she moved to Florida, where she was a founding board member of the Hospice of the Florida Keys. In addition to her son, Mrs. Beatty is survived three grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Her son David died in 1958. A memorial service will be held at 2p.m. Wednesday, July 14, at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, 230 Pennswood Rd., Bryn Mawr. A reception will follow in the Music Room at Beaumont, 601 N. Ithan Ave., Bryn Mawr., Inquirer Staff Writer

Published May 24, 2010, 3:01 a.m. ET