In the late 1940s, Murphy taught science and math at Kensington Girls High School, then at Mastbaum Technical High School through the early 1950s, her husband said.
She worked as a research chemist at the Frankford Arsenal during World War II, making explosives and mathematical designs for artillery target finders.
Murphy also worked briefly for a pharmaceutical company, where she calibrated raw opium, cocaine and other narcotics for medicinal use.
"She had an extremely logical mind," Murphy said. "The only time she ever got emotional was with me. Why, I don't know, but she was crazy about me."
The Murphys married in 1950 and raised five children. When her children were old enough, Margaret Murphy returned to teaching and retired from Upper Darby High School in 1977.
"She was the only woman I ever really loved," her husband said. "She was everything a man could ask for: beautiful, big blue eyes, size 12 dress, and a heart of a lion.
"They say in mathematics, one plus one equals two, but in marriage, one plus one becomes one," he said. "She was the best friend I ever had."
Margaret Murphy also loved to read detective stories and was hooked on the Sunday television show "Murder, She Wrote."
She was a devout Roman Catholic and read her prayerbook every day.
"She was traditional in the religious sense, but liberal when it came to women's lib, and in all honesty, she was fully capable of earning damn good money on her own. She saw to it that her daughters graduated from college," her husband said.
James Murphy recalled strolling with his wife in Kensington's Norris Square, once a beautifully manicured park where Mennonites used to preach.
"We'd be out on one of our dates, sometimes on a summer evening," he said. "Over the night air we'd hear the voice of this Mennonite preacher saying, 'If the Lord were to come tonight and call you, are you ready?'
"That sentence became her life's philosophy, and she repeated it often, even on her deathbed," he said.
Besides her husband, Murphy is survived by two daughters, Margaret Saunders and Elizabeth; three sons, Thomas, James and John; one granddaughter; and a sister, Elizabeth McGrath.
Mass of Christian Burial was to be celebrated at 11 a.m. today at St. Andrew's Church in Drexel Hill. Burial will be in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Cheltenham.
IDA GROVES
Ida Groves, mother of 13 children, died Jan. 31. She was 80 and lived in the Oxford Circle section of the city.
Groves, originally from Camden, left school in the sixth grade, and married William R. Groves when she was 16. The couple moved to Bristol, Bucks County, and later settled in a three-bedroom house on Josephine Street in the Northeast.
"They wanted a large family," said Fred Groves, the third-born. "Mom must have changed thousands of diapers. They didn't have Pampers in those days."
Groves lost two of her children to pneumonia, and a third died at birth, her son said.
The Groves household was a busy one, and all of the children were expected to chip in.
"We all had our chores," Fred Groves said. "We had to. One person couldn't do it all."
William Groves, who died in 1961, brought home the bacon as a machinist at Hellwigs Textile Manufacturing Co. at Frankford and Torresdale avenues.
"Every morning, several of us would take his lunch to him before we went to school," Groves said. "It must have been a four-mile trip every morning, but you figure the trolley cost 10 cents, and every little bit helped."
Even though meals were industrial-size, Groves was a great cook, her son remembered.
"We still talk about her cooking," Groves said. "You're talking about a meal with maybe eight full-sized chickens.
"I wouldn't be afraid to say we used two loaves of bread in a meal. Maybe a couple of gallons of milk," he said.
For most of his childhood, Fred Groves, a career military man, remembered his mother as tired but pleasant.
"She was comical," he said. "She needed a sense of humor with 10 of us brats."
Groves, who came from a musically inclined family, had a beautiful singing voice with a range that reached to high C. She sang all her life as a hobby, and had a stage performance in her early teens.
When the children were raised and gone, Groves became active in a local senior citizens' group and enjoyed the peace and quiet, her son said.
Besides her son Fred, Groves is survived by four other sons, William Jr., Donald, Maurice and Joseph; five daughters, Ruth Valentine, Joan Ebert, Joyce Wileczek, Dianna Craig and Grace Carcione; 40 grandchildren and 40 great- grandchildren; and a sister, Clara Baskin.
Services will be at 1 p.m. today at the James M. Campbell Funeral Home, 500 E. Benner St. A viewing will be held one hour before the service at the funeral home. Burial will be in William Penn Cemetery in Somerton.
JOSEPH P. CRANE
Joseph P. Crane, a real estate broker and the father of 10, died Monday. He was 57 and lived in Maple Glen, Montgomery County.
Crane, a native of Philadelphia's Logan section, worked hard to provide for his family. After he graduated from St. Joseph's University in 1952, Crane received his real estate license.
In 1957, he married Anne Wilson, a woman from his old neighborhood. They had 10 children in 10 years, with one set of twins.
"It was fun," said Crane's wife, Anne. "He was an excellent father, fun- loving at times, and a strict disciplinarian when he had to be."
From 1955 to 1975, Crane owned an Abington real estate business with his brother-in-law, John F. Wilson. The men built and sold new homes, Anne Crane said.
In 1975, he joined DePaul Realty Co. in Philadelphia as a broker. Ill health forced his retirement in August 1986.
Besides his wife, Crane is survived by five sons, Joseph, Matthew, Michael, Terence and Paul; fives daughters, Ellen, Constance, Nancy O'Neill, Patricia DiDonato and Catherine DeLucca; a sister, Marilyn Nolen; and six grandchildren.
Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 8 tonight at St. Alphonsus Church in Maple Glen, with a visitation two hours before the service. Burial will be at 10 a.m. tomorrow after a procession from the church to St. John Neumann Cemetery, Warrington.
