Eurita McDowell Roachford, 80, teacher, volunteer

Eurita McDowell Roachford, 80, of Willingboro, a former teacher with the Burlington County Special Services School District, died of complications from a stroke Monday, June 23, at Statesman Health and Rehabilitation Center in Levittown, Bucks County.

Born in the Bronx, N.Y., Mrs. Roachford graduated from George Washington High School in Manhattan and earned a bachelor's in education at Hunter College and a teaching certificate at Queens College.

Married in 1957, she and her husband, Ralph, lived until 1959 in West Germany, where he was an Army infantryman. When they returned to New York City, she was a teachers' aide in Queens.

After moving to Willingboro with her family in 1973, Mrs. Roachford taught for the Special Services School District, "working with children with disabilities," her son Keith said.

"In 1977, when she had a stroke, she stopped working," he said.

Since 1973, she had been a member of Christ the King Episcopal Church in Willingboro and a member of the Episcopal Church Women there.

Nina Simmons, a friend from the church, said that though Mrs. Roachford was impaired, "she never gave up."

Mrs. Roachford "was a wonderful, wonderful person who endured a long, long disability," Simmons said.

But, she said, Mrs. Roachford "was determined from the beginning that she would continue to do everything that she could."

Keith Roachford said that his mother was a volunteer at the Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County in Willingboro from the mid-1990s until she suffered a second stroke in the fall of 2009.

"She had been on ventilator care" since then, he said. "It was remarkable that she was able to live as long as she did. It was her determination."

Besides her husband and son, she is survived by her son Scott and four grandchildren.

A visitation was set from 9:30 a.m. Monday, June 30, at Christ the King Episcopal Church, 40 Charleston Rd., Willingboro, N.J. 08046, before a 10 a.m. funeral there, with interment in Brig. Gen. William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Wrightstown.

Donations may be sent to the church at the above address.

Condolences may be offered to the family at the Goes-Scolieri Funeral Home, 212 Levitt Pkwy. Willingboro 08046.