Alice M. Austin

Alice Mary (Ayton) Austin, 99, passed away peacefully in her sleep on February 24, 2025 in West Brandywine, PA. She was born and raised in New York City, the daughter of Irish immigrants Rebecca and Joseph Ayton, and the youngest of four girls.

A child of the Depression, Alice was raised to value hard work and education. She graduated from high school at sixteen. She received her BA from Hunter College and her MA from Columbia University while working three jobs. She was a true New Yorker and embraced the ethnicity of its neighborhoods. She loved surnames and would ask anyone she met how they spelled their name and where they were from. She had the map of the city in her head and often told her children about walking home from school or work to save the nickel subway fare.

As WWII drew to a close, she left Manhattan to teach physical education at (SUNY) Oswego State College in upstate New York. There she met her husband “Red”, a returning GI. They moved to Midland, Michigan where she became a homemaker, as they raised their family of four girls. Always the continuous learner, she threw herself into canning, sewing Halloween costumes, making drapes, and expertly decorating cakes and cookies. Throughout her life she enjoyed her church communities. She made lifelong friends while teaching the Sunday School class of twenty 3-year-olds at the First Methodist Church.

From there they moved to Moorestown, NJ. As her children approached college age and thinking she was too old to return to teaching physical education, she went back to school to get certified in elementary education.

When the family moved to Williamsville, NY, the new Casey Middle School was just opening. She headed the PE department there, and then retired from Mill Middle School in 1988. In retirement they moved to Madeira Beach Florida but still summered in Buffalo for many years.

In a house of girls, she always set the example. Whether wielding a paint brush, refinishing a dresser or mowing the yard, she demonstrated to her daughters that they were an equal opportunity workforce. She served others faithfully, volunteering at the Bay Pines VA Hospital for 20 years, donating gallons of blood over her lifetime and always “pitching in” whenever she saw a need.

She enjoyed keeping fit, bowling, walking and until a few years ago, swimming laps every day at her retirement home. She and Red were great dancers and her girls loved watching them dance the Lindy. She cheered for the Buffalo Bills and loved being on the sidelines for any of her grandkids’ games.

She was predeceased by her loving husband of 56 years, Robert Clinton Austin, her three sisters, Betty McClure, Marion Dreyer and Isabel Daggett, and a menagerie of family pets. She is survived by daughters, Roberta Jackson (David), Nancy Chumney (Kevin), Rebecca Zupancic (Wayne) and Laurie Austin (Rick); grandchildren, Kelsey Jackson, Rachel Chumney Long, Taylor Chumney Scotton, Austin Campanella, Joshua Campanella and Alice Bach as well as nine great grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.

A celebration of life is planned for a later date. In lieu of flowers, contributions in Alice’s memory may be made to the University of Pennsylvania Transplant Institute

https://giving.aws.cloud.upenn.edu/fund?program=MC&fund=601185