Elizabeth Frances (nee Revell) Diggins, age 92, died on Oct 12, 2021 in Hagerstown, MD, at the Commonwealth Senior Living community, where she had lived for five years. Elizabeth, known to many as Betty, was born in Hagerstown on Feb 2, 1929. She graduated from Boonsboro High School in 1945 and from the Washington County Hospital School of Nursing in 1952.
Se started her nursing career in the Emergency Room at the Washington County Hospital. Over her long career, she engaged in other nursing roles including hospital wards, nursing homes, industrial nursing (Mack Trucks and Grove Manufacturing), and private duty nursing. Nursing was an important part of her identity and she was a nurse to the end; even in the weeks before she died, she would alert Commonwealth staff when she felt other residents needed medical attention.
In Feb 1954, Elizabeth married Daniel Diggins. They started their married life in New Jersey, where Elizabeth worked at Perth Amboy City Hospital. Over the next six years, they started their family, welcoming three daughters, Susan, Lori, and Danielle, and one son, Daniel Jr. In 1963, the family relocated permanently to the Hagerstown area, where Elizabeth lived the rest of her life.
One constant in Elizabeth’s life was music, a joy and activity she shared with her husband. She started playing the piano at a young age, and as an adult played for weddings and sang in several community choruses and in church choirs. When she moved to Commonwealth Senior Living in 2016, her piano went along; she was still entertaining staff and residents there with her playing and singing in the months before she died.
She was a member of Bethel Assembly (now Lifehouse Church) in Hagerstown for 40 years, where she taught Sunday School and directed youth choirs, and Bethel United Methodist Church in Chewsville for 40 years.
Elizabeth was preceded in death by her husband, Daniel Diggins (2011), her son in law, Ray Johns (2018), and her brothers, James, Robert, Joseph, Benjamin, and Daniel (Revell). She is survived by her four children: Susan Johns, Lori Diggins, Danielle Diggins, and Daniel Diggins Jr (Cyndi); five grandchildren, Abraham Shellito, Kristen Akin (Kyle), Lance Poffenberger (Mandy), Amy Mitchell (Christopher), and Rachel Matlock (James); four great grandchildren, Luke Akin, Elizabeth Akin, Matthias Mitchell, and Naomi Mitchell; her sister, Sara Frey, and brother, Alfred “Van” Revell (Lindy), and many much loved nieces and nephews.
The family would like to thank Commonwealth Senior Living for the unfailing loving care Elizabeth received there, Hospice of Washington County for their incredible care and support at the time of Elizabeth’s death, and to the many people who were so faithful to visit Elizabeth, even after she was, in some cases, unable to remember who they were.
For anyone wishing to make a donation in the memory of Elizabeth, the family suggests Hospice of Washington County, Hagerstown, MD or Bethel United Methodist Church, Smithsburg, MD.