Robin Murphy, a 69-year League member, died October 6, just short of her 96th birthday.
In terms of her service, Robin was the most senior lifetime member of the League of Women Voters of Orange County, Florida.
She joined the League on May 1, 1952, when she was a young mother, homemaker, and active civic volunteer with a life-long interest in government and policy issues.
At that time, the group had about 50 members and was still called the Winter Park-Orlando League.
She served as a vice president and a member of the Board of Directors of the Orange County League and worked on many of the group’s initiatives, including government and child care projects.
A Florida native, Robin was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Florida State College for Women (later Florida State University) with a degree in political science. She was the mother of five, including active LWVOC member Sara Segal.
In a 2018 video interview with the LWVOC History Committee, Robin recalled that in post-war Orlando, the LWV was interested in international issues as well as those on the home front. “We were meeting in people’s homes,” she recalled, “studying in committees and then holding unit discussions. We were one of the public groups that spoke out on issues. Everybody was interested in government. It was a more personal time, and politics was more simple then.”
(During her video interview, Robin modestly protested the attention and said, ”Don’t make this about me.”)
In her funeral obituary, Robin’s family wrote of her, “She had a sure and steady purpose – commitment to community, informed civic engagement, and Christian faith – which guided a life of good works, as servant and leader. Her life enriched many who knew her.”