Elsie R. Furness-Colburn, WWII Army Veteran and Nurse, Dies at 90

Elsie R. (Mooradian) Furness-Colburn, 90, of Village Green Circle, Coventry, formerly of Warwick, died Monday, August 26, 2013 at Riverview Healthcare Community. She was the former wife of the late Robert I. Furness and the late Robert B. Colburn.

Born in Providence, a daughter of the late Phillip and Celia (Wood) Mooradian, she graduated from the Homeopathic Hospital School of Nursing, Providence in 1944. She received a master's degree in Nursing Administration from URI. She was a World War II U.S. Army veteran stationed at Lovell General Hospital, Ft. Devens, MA where she served as a 2nd Lieutenant assisting with neuropsychiatric battle casualties.

Prior to the war she began her long career in nursing at the Homeopathic Hospital in surgical obstetrics and pediatrics. After the war she was employed at Jane Brown Hospital; Butler Hospital; as plant nurse for Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing and for Blue Cross Blue Shield of RI from where she retired as the Manager of the Utilization Review Department.

She was a member of Signet Chapter 21, O.E.S.; of the former Church of the Ressurection and of St. Barnabas Church in Apponaug. 

Elsie is survived by one son: Peter J. Furness and his wife Alison of Saunderstown; one sister: Miriam Cornell of North Fort Myers, FL and four grandchildren: Jonathan, Lindsey, Zachary and Zaban Furness. She was the beloved aunt of Carolyn Winsor and Susan Scicchitano and the step-mother of Robert W. Colburn and his wife Beverly of Southbury, CT and Christine E. Goins and her husband Charlie of Warwick. She was the mother of the late Stephen R. Furness and sister of the late Emily Kinney.

Calling hours will be held on Thursday, August 29, 2013 from 5-7 p.m. at Carpenter-Jenks Funeral Home & Crematory, 659 East Greenwich Avenue, West Warwick, followed by a memorial service at 7 p.m. Interment, with military honors, in the RI Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Exeter will be private.

The family requests donations in her memory be made to the Potter League for Animals, P.O. Box 412, Newport, RI 02840 or at www.potterleague.org.

Click here to view Elsie's memorial page, courtesy of Carpenter-Jenks Funeral Home.