Elizabeth M. Ellis Was Skilled, Avid Gardener

Elizabeth M. Ellis, 79, a clinical psychologist who practiced in Washington, D.C., until retiring about five years ago, died June 1 at Washington Hospital Center of complications after a stroke. She was for many years a summer visitor to the Vineyard.

Mrs. Ellis, a resident of Washington, was born in Milwaukee. She was graduated from the University of Chicago, receiving a master's degree in psychology from George Washington University and a doctorate in psychology from the University of Maryland.

From the 1970s until she retired, she had a private practice in clinical psychology, and was affiliated with the Community Psychiatric Clinic in Bethesda.

Her first marriage, to Walter Ellis, ended in divorce. She was married to Daniel M. Friedman in 1975, and soon after the couple purchased a house on Turkeyland Cove of the Edgartown Great Pond, where they spent increasingly longer periods each summer. In the last few years before her stroke in December of 1997, they spent three to four months there every summer.

Mrs. Ellis was a skilled and avid gardener, and an enthusiastic birder. She loved and cultivated flowers, and also grew a wide variety of herbs. She frequently went on bird walks and always kept a bird feeder on the property.

She is survived by her husband, Judge Daniel M. Friedman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, of Washington; four children from her first marriage, Buffy Ellis of Bethesda, Jonathan Ellis and Benjamin Ellis of New York, and Nancy Ellis of Dayton, Ore., and nine grandchildren.