Jean B. Eife, 80, mother of 8 given a house in 1967

Early in June 1966, Jean Boehmer Eife gave birth to two boys and two girls at Frankford Hospital.

She and her husband, Philadelphia Police Detective Sgt. Richard J. Eife, already were raising two boys and two girls, ranging from 4 to 13 years old.

"Since this was way before fertility drugs," an elder daughter, Eileen Cummons, wrote in an obituary note, "this was a big story back then."

The quadruple births to the 36-year-old attracted enough public attention that unnamed donors soon gave the family the gift of a lifetime.

In November 1967, the Eifes and their eight children moved from a three-bedroom Frankford home into a six-bedroom Colonial in Bustleton, cost-free.

Mrs. Eife, 80, died of a brain tumor Friday, March 11, at the home of her eldest child, Richard, in Jupiter, Fla.

The 1967 value of the $26,000 home might not seem extraordinary to some by today's standards - the equivalent of $171,431 in 2011 dollars. But newspapers reported that Sgt. Eife's 1967 salary was $7,125, a good portion of which might have gone to raising eight children, not paying off a mortgage.

A 1967 Inquirer article reported that the family's new home was a gift "from a lot of kind citizens, developers, builders, unionists, and construction suppliers."

None was named.

Another Inquirer 1967 story reported that when Mayor James H.J. Tate "heard about the detective's full house, he asked Managing Director Fred Corleto and City Representative Abe Rosen to see if they could find some people who would help the Eifes get a larger place."

"People pitched in - and pretty soon there was this spacious home on a double lot. And it was painted free by union members of Painters Local 21," the article said.

On the ceremonial move-in day, in front of the Police and Firemen's Band and about 100 people sitting on lawn chairs or standing in front of a flag-draped platform filled with city officials, Tate presented the house keys to the Eifes.

The move, however welcome, was a bit unsettling.

"We've lived here for the 15 years of our marriage," Mrs. Eife said a month before they left their first house in the 5100 block of Jackson Street in Frankford. "I was born on this street. It's the only neighborhood I've ever known.

"Now I'm going out in the sticks - and I can't drive."

Mrs. Eife graduated from St. Hubert Catholic High School for Girls in 1948 and worked as a secretary at Yankee Line Transports and the Navy Depot.

She was a volunteer at, among others, St. John's Hospice, the Center City ministry to the homeless.

Besides daughter Eileen and son Richard, Mrs. Eife is survived by her husband of 58 years; son Michael; daughter Denise Liquori; the quadruplets, Alan, David, Beth Oberst, and Catherine; and 17 grandchildren.

Viewings were set from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, March 17, at the Galzerano Funeral Home, 9304 Old Bustleton Ave., and after 9 a.m. Friday, March 18 at Maternity Blessed Virgin Mary Church, 9220 Old Bustleton Ave., where a Funeral Mass will be said at 10.