Elizabeth Wilkins

Elizabeth Marion Wilkins, 87, a longtime Port Orchard resident, died Tuesday at Life Care Center of Port Orchard. She was born in Hitchin, England, and lived in Rutherglen, Scotland, until 1922, when, at the age of 5, she came with her family to the United States. She was the eldest daughter of William Bremner Ramsey and Marion Elizabeth Ramsey. She lived in Detroit where she met and married her first husband, Albert Wipp, who was 15 years her senior. The coupled had three children and relocated to Port Orchard from Detroit in 1945. She was a homemaker and an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God. During World War II, she worked outside the home, making machine guns in a war plant. A naturalized American citizen, she received an award for voting in 50 consecutive elections. Her only son, Albert, age 17, died in an accident on Thanksgiving Day 1952. Her husband preceded her in death in 1978 after 44 years of marriage and her eldest daughter, Marion Elizabeth Castroni, died in June 1979 after a six-year battle with breast cancer. She married Bruce M. Wilkins, her first husband's lifelong friend, on Valentine's Day 1979. He helped her raise two of her daughter Marion's three children, Susanne and Janet. Mrs. Wilkins is survived by her husband; a daughter, Dorothy Latandresse; six grandchildren, Bob Hudson, Sandee Smith, Susanne Wilkins, Janet Davis, Jim Castroni and Shannon Batchelor; and nine great-grandchildren. A celebration of her life will be at 11 a.m.Tuesday at Belfair Assembly of God. Arrangements are under the direction of Rill Chapel's Life Tribute Center in Port Orchard. A luncheon provided by the congregation follows the service.