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Elizabeth was born in Dublin, Ireland Thursday, May 28, 1874 to Joseph and Catherine (nee Kearns) O'Keefe. He was 20 and she was 18 years old. The baby was named Elizabeth after her maternal grandmother, Elizabeth McGrain. Her brother, Harry, was born when she was 2 ½ years old. In April 1883, when she was almost 9 years old, the four of them immigrated to the United States and somehow settled in Cleveland, Ohio.

On Monday, August 17, 1891 at St. John's Cathedral in Cleveland, Ohio, she married Henry J. Billinghurst, who had come to the United States from Devonshire, England. Rev. W. Thomas Thorpe officiated. She was 17 and Henry was 23. According to church records, Henry was not Catholic at the time of his marriage but he must have converted to Catholicism sometime during his life because he was buried from the Catholic Church.

Elizabeth Billinghurst gave birth to her first child, Harry, October 16, 1893 when she was19. The couple had three more children. George was born December 6, 1895 and Agnes February 7, 1898. Since Elizabeth was married before her father was naturalized, she had to wait until her husband Henry was naturalized on March 23, 1899 to become a U.S. citizen. Before 1920 women were not permitted to apply for US citizenship. According to the 1900 census, Elizabeth had five children but one of them died as an infant. Then Robert arrived March 14, 1900. She was almost 26 years old when she gave birth to Robert. When Robert was born the ages of his siblings were Harry 6 ½, George 4 and Agnes 2. Elizabeth lost another child in infancy according to the 1910 census and then in July 1909, a daughter Marie also called Mary was born. Unfortunately, she died on August 2 of the following year and was buried in Calvary cemetery. All the children were born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio.

Elizabeth worked as a telephone operator during her early years. Elizabeth divorced Henry in 1914, but when he took seriously ill around 1916, Elizabeth took him back and cared for him until May 12, 1918 when Henry died. He was 50 years old and she just 44. Henry was buried in Calvary Cemetery in the same three-grave plot that her father, Joseph O'Keefe, was buried only 4 years earlier. On October 18 of that same year, Elizabeth's daughter Agnes married Guy Walkup, who had just returned from serving in World War I. Agnes was 20 years old at the time.

In 1920 both Harry and George were married. George married (Mary) Coletta Shea. She was the daughter of Michael and Lydia Shea. Lydia had passed away in 1910 and their son, William, had been killed in 1918 in France during the First World War. Then in 1922 Elizabeth and Michael Shea were married. She was 48 and he was 6 years her senior. With the marriage, Michael and Elizabeth became stepparents to George and Coletta respectively in addition to their in-law status. Elizabeth officially went by the name Mrs. Michael J. Shea.

Elizabeth's first grandchild, Bruce Walkup, couldn't say "Granny" and it came out "Dinny". The name stuck and even to this day she is referred to affectionately as "Dinny" by those who knew her and still have wonderful memories of her. Dinny was also known for being a pretty good shot with a gun.

The O'Keefe home on Ferris was host to many lively parties with piano music and dancing, where even Grandma O'Keefe (Catherine) was known to hitch up her skirts and do a jig. On November 27, 1923, Elizabeth's mother, Catherine, died at the age of 66 and was buried next to her husband in Calvary Cemetery. Elizabeth and Michael together with their children who were still living at home moved into the family home at 12413 Ferris Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. Her youngest son, Robert, was married to Anna Lynch on August 31, 1927. The family gathered frequently at Dinny's house (her grown children, their spouses and her grandchildren, etc.) Even though Dinny was a little woman, she could be a real spitfire when anyone got out of line (including her grown sons and son-in-law) especially if something off-color was said.

Elizabeth's daughter-in-law, Mary Coletta was seriously ill from diabetes during the last few years of her life, so George and his family moved into the "family home" on Ferris Avenue and Elizabeth helped to raise the children. Mary Coletta died October 9, 1932. Their oldest child wasn't quite 10 and the youngest not yet one. During Mary Coletta's illness and after her death, Dinny made tea and toast every evening for the children before they went to bed. George remarried on June 20, 1936 to Grace McKinney (nee Nutting). Grace also had lost her spouse in 1932 and had three young children, Kenneth, Marjorie and Donald. George and Grace had two more children. Jeanne Marie was born October 17, 1937 and Alfred Leroy was born September 6, 1941. He later changed his name to Roy A. Billinghurst.

Elizabeth's brother Harry passed away October 9, 1937. On August 28, 1941, Michael Shea died at the age of 73 and was buried in Calvary Cemetery next to his first wife Lyda and daughter Colette in section 5 lot 505. Elizabeth and Michael had been married 19 years. She was 67 years old. Elizabeth sold the family home at 12413 Ferris Avenue in 1942 and lived with her daughter Agnes and her family at 17306 Miles Avenue during Elizabeth's later years. Elizabeth lived through the Spanish-American war, in which her brother, Harry, fought plus the First World War, the Great Depression and the Second World War. In fact during the Second World War, Dinny had 5 grandchildren (Bruce and Roy Walkup, Bill Billinghurst, and Ken and Marge McKinney) in military service. She wrote to each of them weekly telling them what was happening at home and what the others in the service were doing. Dinny recorded the births, deaths and marriages of her extended family throughout the years, in the Family Record section of her bible.

In 1944, George moved his family to Avon, Ohio and the previously frequent visits back and forth became very infrequent because of the distance. In fact, Roy Walkup drove Elizabeth out to Avon for her first visit when he came home from the service in 1945. Elizabeth's daughter-in-law Loretta, Harry's wife, preceded her in death by two weeks. Elizabeth died March 9, 1949. The funeral home was Lester J. Gallagher, 9610 Miles Avenue and after a Requiem Mass at St. Timothy's Catholic Church, she was laid to rest in section 24 lot 21 in Calvary Cemetery with her first husband, Henry and her parents. She was 74, the mother of four, grandmother of 12, step-grandmother of two and great-grandmother of four at the time of her death.

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