Obituaries

Nancy BabcockITHACA - Nancy Keyes Babcock, age 76, of Cayuga Heights, Ithaca, NY, died Friday, December 23, 2005, at Bridges of Cornell Heights, from Alzheimer’s Disease. She passed quietly and peacefully in her bed after a brief interval of congestion and fever.

Nancy was predeceased by her father, Hugh Tallman Keyes; mother, Faye Elizabeth Keyes; sister, Faye Elizabeth Smith; and brother, Robert S. (Sharon) Keyes, all of Birmingham, MI. Brother, Richard Irwin (Marilyn) Keyes, survives her in Gaylord, MI.

Nancy is survived also by her husband, John B. Babcock (married in 1953); and three daughters, Susan Leigh Babcock, Ithaca, Nancy (Martin) Perlin, Fairfield, CT, and Jeanne (Mark) Swartz, Alpharetta, GA. She has four grandchildren, Ginger Keyes Perlin and John Babcock Perlin, and Nathan John Swartz and Hayley Jeanne Swartz.

Nancy attended public schools in Birmingham, MI. She graduated from Stephens College, Columbia, MO, in 1949 where her principal studies were music and singing. She then taught ballroom dancing in Birmingham, and sang often with her sister, Faye Elizabeth, who earlier performed professionally in several well-known Broadway productions during the forties in NYC.

The Babcocks brought their family to Ithaca in 1964 where the three daughters attended Ithaca Schools before college. Active in the Ithaca Garden Club, she was a passionate and talented flower arranger winning numerous awards, and she volunteered in decorating the hospital annually for the holiday season. She enjoyed golfing as a member of the Ithaca Country Club and social dancing at the Ithaca Yacht Club. She served as a board member of East Lawn Cemetery Association.

Services will be one o’clock in the afternoon of Friday, December 30, 2005, at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 205 Cayuga Street, Ithaca, New York. Interment in East Lawn Cemetery will be delayed and private. There will be no calling hours.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be directed to The Garden Club of Ithaca, c/o Sue Hamilton, Treasurer, 201 Christopher Lane, Ithaca, New York, 14850. Checks should be made out to The Garden Club of Ithaca “in memory of Nancy Babcock.”

Funeral arrangements are under the direction of The Lansing Funeral Home, Inc., 32 Auburn Road, Lansing, NY 533.8600.