Patricia J. Murphy, NIH researcher, businesswoman

Patricia J. Murphy, 81, a National Institutes of Health biological researcher in the 1950s who later operated a housecleaning service, died Dec. 10 at the Clifton Woods assisted living facility in Silver Spring.

She had lymphoma, said her son Robert T. Murphy.

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Patricia Joan Michael was a native Washingtonian and a graduate of the old St. Paul’s Academy in the District. After graduating in 1951 from Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pa., she did graduate study in chemistry at Georgetown University.

From the mid-1980s until the early 1990s, she operated Sparkle Plenty, a housecleaning business.

Mrs. Murphy was a former Chevy Chase resident and a member of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Bethesda and Christ the King Catholic Church in Silver Spring.

In 1960, she married Robert T. Murphy. She accompanied him to Cairo, Tehran and Beirut on his work assignments for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Her husband died in 1978.

Survivors include five children, Thomas K. Murphy of Naples, Daniel J. Murphy of Bethesda, Mary C. Petrizzo of Silver Spring, Michael P. Murphy of Greenbelt and Robert T. Murphy of Edgewater; and 11 grandchildren.

— Bart Barnes