Jean Lagakis Benner

PORT ROYAL - Jean Norma Lagakis Benner, 94, of Port Royal, South Carolina and widow of Royal Daniel Benner, died Thursday afternoon, September 25, 2014, at National HealthCare in Bluffton. Born in Hempstead, New York, she was a daughter of the late Louis Lagakis and the late Olive Cornelia Schwicker Lagakis. Mrs. Benner was a member of the First Presbyterian Church Beaufort. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing and her Master of Public Health degrees from Columbia University School of Public Health and Administrative Medicine. Mrs. Benner was a former staff nurse in Brooklyn, New York.  In 1944 she joined the Nassau County (New York) Health Department as a staff nurse and during her career there she was a supervisor, Consultant Public Health Nurse, Associate Director of Public Health Nursing, Director of Public Health Nursing, and retired from there in 1975 as Assistant Commissioner for Public Health Nursing. She was a Charter Member of the Nassau-Suffolk Health Systems Advocacy and served on the Board of Directors of the Nursing Sisters Home Visiting Service, Inc. in Brooklyn and for the Nassau Chapter of the American Red Cross. Mrs. Benner was also a volunteer in the Beaufort Library and a past member of the Beaufort Salvation Army Advisory Board. Surviving are her brother, Constantine Lagakis of Beaufort; niece Lee Boswell and her husband Mike of Gainesville, Virginia; nephew Mark Lagakis and his wife Betsy of Callawassie Island; niece Nancy Benner Johnston of Gibsonia, Pennsylvania; niece Lee Ann Benner Hilt of Whitehall, Pennsylvania; niece Georgene Benner Young of Las Vegas, Nevada and three great nephews: Brock Lagakis of Bethel, Connecticut; Kyle Lagakis of Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina and Peter Boswell of Gainesville, Virginia. The memorial service will be held at 11:00 o'clock on Saturday, October 18, 2014 in the chapel of Copeland Funeral Service. Interment will be private. Remembrances: First Presbyterian Church Beaufort - 1201 North Street, Beaufort, South Carolina 29902.