Twin sisters, Elizabeth Corbett Frederic and Elaine Corbett Peterson, age 74, both died recently. They were the daughters of John and Mildred Corbett who resided at 28 Walnut Ave. in Floral Park.
They both graduated from Floral Park-Bellerose School and Floral Park Memorial High School and wrote the school’s fight song. They were active locally in Girl Scouts and Triangle, an organization for young women, sponsored by the Floral Park Eastern Star Chapter and school sports. They both attended St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Bellerose.
Elizabeth (Liz) graduated from SUNY Oneonta and earned Master’s degrees from NYU and the University of Connecticut. She is survived by her husband, Paul Frederic of Starks, ME, and son Brad Anderson of San Diego, CA. She moved to Skowhegan, ME, many years ago and worked with her then husband Kenneth at his chiropractic office. She later became a geographer and produced maps and traveled extensively with her second husband Paul, professor of geography at the University of Maine. They were teaching in China but had to leave when the SARS respiratory epidemic hit. They also had teaching assignments in Namibia in Africa. She died in Starks, ME, where she was a community leader and a driving force behind the establishment of a local library. She received numerous awards for her civic work, including one from the governor of Maine.
Elaine graduated from St. Luke’s School of Nursing in Manhattan and worked as a nurse for five decades specializing in cardiac and critical care nursing. She lived in Douglaston, as well as in Floral Park, Mineola, and in Connecticut, Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida and California. When she lived locally she was a member of the Floral Park Women’s Club and the Red Hat Society.
She is survived by her children John, James, Craig and Dawn, and five grandchildren and daughter-in-law, Tanya.
Elaine worked in numerous hospitals and in Tennessee was a rural visiting nurse in Appalachia and The Great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee where she lived on a farm with her family. Born on his birthday, she was an admirer of Abraham Lincoln and collector of small antiques and historical items. She traveled to almost every state and enjoyed vacations in Asia, Canada and Europe.
When living in Connecticut, Elaine was honored for using her medical skills to revive a child who had drowned and was given up for dead before she arrived on the scene and saved his life.
Elaine and Elizabeth are both survived by their brother William J. Corbett of Floral Park, sister-in-law, former Floral Park Mayor Ann Corbett and nephews Bill Corbett, Jr., Spencer Corbett and niece Sally Ann Corbett, four grand nieces and nephews and by their cousin, Robert Cole of Floral Park and his wife Wilda and their children Marlene and Jeffrey and other cousins throughout the United States.
Religious memorial services for Liz were held in the Starks Community Center in Maine and burial in the Frederic family cemetery. Elaine’s religious memorial service was held in Los Angeles and her ashes were spread in one of her favorite areas of the mountains near Los Angeles.
They both died of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Donations in their memory may be made at the COPD Foundation (www.copdfoundation.org).
