Isobel Jean Murphy

Isobel Jean Murphy was born August 6th 1944 in Strathfield, Australia, the first child of John and Bessie Dove. Isobel was the eldest of six siblings and had fond memories of a childhood in the country town of Parkes, Australia before moving back to Strathfield where she attended Strathfield Girls High School.

Her father bought Jim Murphy home from the local lawn bowls club to meet his daughter and they were engaged and married after a few short months in August, 1968. It was the beginning of a wonderful forty-seven year marriage of mutual adoration that ended too soon when Jim died in 2015. Together they had three children – John, Alison and Glenn.

Isobel was devastated by the too-early death of Glenn in 2009 but was greatly comforted by her grandchildren.

Isobel had a number of jobs over the years but her career began when her children were older. She started out as local interviewer for the Australian Bureau of Statistics working on the census and in subsequent years worked in various roles in market research for A.C. Nielsen, AGB McNair and ended her career in social research at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago as an Assistant Director of Operations.

Isobel emigrated to the US for her last job in Chicago in 2003, and retired to Indianapolis in 2012 to be closer to and help with her grandchildren there. In her retirement years, Isobel loved to travel, often visiting relatives around the world, and she loved to read, knit and cross-stitch.

In her final days she talked often of all the love in her beautiful life. Isobel was blessed with a happy, loving family and enduring life-long friendships. She liked to humble-brag about her grandchildren and looked for the good in people.

Isobel died at home in Carmel, Indiana on July 20th as the sun was rising with her son John and daughter Alison at her side. It was a peaceful and quiet death after a two-year fight with cancer that she handled with graceful stoicism and optimistic forbearance. She never wanted to be a bother and did not like to complain. She was regarded as a lady of the first order for her sweet personality and impeccable manners.

Isobel is preceded in death by her parents John and Bessie Dove, her son Glenn and her husband, Jim Murphy.

Isobel is survived by her siblings Heather (Nick) Thorp, Gordon (Jann) Dove, Janet Shankster, Stuart Dove and Susan (Peter) Green; her children John (Maggie) Murphy and Alison Murphy (Charles Haywood); her daughter-in-law Alison Murphy; and her grandchildren Eilish, James, Ewan, Isabella, Ciara, Charlotte, Hamish, Evelyn, Henry and Oliver.

She will be greatly missed.