Elizabeth R. Bodine, 96, English teacher and world traveler

Elizabeth R. Bodine, 96, formerly of Wyndmoor, an English teacher, world traveler, and civic volunteer, died Friday, July 7, of heart failure in her home at Foulkeways at Gwynedd, where she had lived for the last 27 years.

Born at Lankenau Hospital, Mrs. Bodine was known to friends as "Betty." She grew up in Germantown. the daughter of pathologist Stanley P. Reimann and homemaker Elsie B. Reimann, who accompanied her to and from Germantown Friends School each weekday on the Walnut Lane trolley until the family purchased a car.

While at Germantown Friends, she was praised on an early report card for "good development and fertile individuality," but warned that she "is not good about cleaning up, but improving."

After graduating as class valedictorian in 1937, she received a bachelor's degree from Smith College in Northampton, Mass., and a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania, both in English. In the 1980s, she taught the subject to eighth graders at Germantown Friends, and to young adults at the Ambler campus of Temple University.

Mrs. Bodine was a voracious reader. She read the New York Times daily and belonged to a book club at Foulkeways, a senior community in Montgomery County.

"Her children learned early on that reading was not just a gift, but a responsibility in English, and occasionally French and Latin," the family said in an appreciation. "She also read and spoke some German, a requirement in [her childhood] household."

Mrs. Bodine also loved music. Her father, a skilled amateur pianist, taught Mrs. Bodine to sight-read, and she, too, became an accomplished pianist. She played with other instrumentalists in a chamber music group at the family home. Her children said they had "fond memories of Schubert's 'Trout Quintet' wafting up the stairs where they sat, out of the musicians' way."

"When we heard them playing the quintet, we knew we didn't have to go to bed," said daughter Susie Holahan. "Nobody was there to supervise us."

Mrs. Bodine studied with pianist Rudolf Serkin. She accompanied the Smith College Orchestra on piano, and until a year ago, played for religious services at Foulkeways.

Mrs. Bodine also sang at some of the musical evenings hosted by Dr. Henry S. Drinker at his home in Wynnewood. At one of the musicales, Mrs. Bodine had a first date with her future husband, John W. Bodine. A lawyer and Rhodes scholar, he advocated for reform during the Joseph S. Clark-Richardson Dilworth era of the late 1940s.

The couple married in 1943, and reared four daughters in Wyndmoor. Bodine, the president of the Penjerdel Council, an early attempt at regional cooperation, died in 1991 at age 79.

Mrs. Bodine supported the Settlement Music School, American Friends Services Committee, Planned Parenthood, and International House. She served as an alumnae trustee with an interest in Smith College's School for Social Work.

She had friends everywhere.

"We heard stories about various boyfriends and were amazed and delighted when Dr. Allan J. Erslev, a friend from her past, resurfaced and was Betty's devoted companion for eight wonderful years following the deaths of their respective spouses," her children wrote. Erslev, a Haverford resident, died in 2003 at age 84.

The Bodines traveled widely — to England, Russia, Iran, Peru, the Caribbean, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Germany, Scandinavia, and a ranch in Wyoming.

Summers were for camping, monthlong visits to a compound outside Freeport, Maine, and time spent at the family vacation house in the Poconos.

After her husband's death, Mrs. Bodine traveled with granddaughters to Chile and China. She went on safari to Africa, visited Australia, New Zealand, and France, and toured Seattle and Victoria, British Columbia, with an Elderhostel group.

A lifelong Democrat, Mrs. Bodine closely followed current events, and held strong opinions.

"There was a huge amount of discussion around our dinner table. There was a map of the world on the dining-room wall," said her daughter. If a place came up in conversation, the children would be asked to locate it on the map.

Besides her daughter, Mrs. Bodine was survived by daughters Amelia Bergmann, Lucy Nattrass, and Cornelia McCann; 11 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. A sister died earlier.

A memorial service will be at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, July 16, in the auditorium at Foulkeways at Gwynedd, 1120 Meetinghouse Rd. Burial will be private.

Memorial donations may be made to the Settlement Music School via www.settlemusic.org, or to Planned Parenthood of Southeastern PA via www.ppsp.org.