Elsie Margaret (Stroppel) Beaver died peacefully on July 31, 2025 after a brief illness. A long-time resident of Rockville Centre and a member of St Agnes parish, Elsie had been living at the Atria Lynbrook assisted living facility at the time of her passing.

Elsie and her brother Eric were raised by their parents, Joseph and Anna Stroppel, in Astoria, NY, surrounded by a loving community of German-American immigrants. Elsie carried the connection to her German heritage all her life, and lovingly communicated a love of pinochle, coffee klatsches and waltzes to her children and grandchildren. She was fluent in German, maintaining relationships with cousins in Germany and Austria throughout her life.

After attending Dominican Commercial High School, Elsie worked as a secretary for IBM until shortly after her marriage to Jack Beaver in 1959. The couple raised four children in Valley Stream, and after a brief stint in Framingham MA, returned to Long Island, settling in Rockville Centre.

Elsie reignited her secretarial career in 1977 through Rockville Centre Public Schools. Although she expected to work just long enough to pay her children’s college tuition bills, she retired as secretary of the Wilson School 35 years later. During the summers, Elsie indulged her love of travel, with trips to Hawaii, Alaska, Spain, Switzerland, Russia, China, Scandinavia, the American Southwest and the Canadian Rockies.

Elsie was a wonderful hostess, putting on amazing spreads for an extended family for every holiday for more than 50 years. She played the piano beautifully, especially old show tunes, Christmas carols and Viennese waltzes, even entertaining the residents in her assisted living facility when she first moved there in 2022. She loved spring flowers and beautiful scenery.  She treasured old friends. She loved listening to the singing of Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Luciano Pavarotti in equal measure. She loved pinochle and Scrabble, coffee and pastries, and new babies. She met and held each of her three great grandchildren.

Elsie was widowed in 1990. She leaves her daughter Katherine Foulser; sons John and Thomas; her brother Eric Stroppel and his wife Maureen; granddaughters Erica Foulser, Caitlin (and husband Ben) Boone, and Alban (and husband Damian) Szmulewicz; a grandson Matthew Lee; and three great grandchildren; as well as treasured sisters- and brothers in-law, and several nieces and nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.

A celebration of her life will be held at a later date. Elsie will be interred at Maple Grove Cemetery in Queens alongside her parents. 

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