Julia Ericksen, 85, who lives in Chestnut Hill with her husband, Eugene (they previously lived in Mt. Airy for 53 years), does not have a strong voice anymore and is not nearly as mobile as when she was winning dance competitions, but she does have a lifetime of extraordinary memories as an author, dancer, Temple University professor, mother and researcher.

Born in England, Ericksen came to the United States in 1964 to attend graduate school in the Department of Sociology at the University of Michigan. She was interested in demography — the study of human populations — and a well-known professor of hers at the London School of Economics encouraged her to apply to Michigan, Berkeley and Penn, but he strongly recommended Michigan.

While at Michigan, Julia met Eugene Ericksen, who had gone to Jackson, Mississippi, to register Black voters, a task that was literally death-defying at the time. (In 1964, three civil rights workers from New York who were trying to register Black residents of Philadelphia, Mississippi, were tortured and murdered by the Ku Klux Klan.)

“Gene told me he refused to hold a gun,” Julia Ericksen said last week. “He said he was more terrified of the gun than of the KKK. When I met him at a party at the University of Michigan, he told me the fall before he had been in Mississippi. I was so impressed, I wanted to marry him right away. We went to the first big antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C. We had so much in common.

“The best decision I have ever made was marrying Eugene. We have been married for almost 60 years now, and I still love him today as I have throughout our life together. … My parents both left school at age 14. They sacrificed everything for me and my brother. He still lives in the south of England. ... Despite the difficulties she experienced, my mother was a wonderful person.”

In 1965, Ericksen earned a master’s degree from the University of Michigan. She continued her education at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1976.

She went on to write three books: “Taking Charge of Breast Cancer,” “Kiss and Tell: Surveying Sex in the 20th Century” and “Dance With Me: Ballroom Dancing and the Promise of Instant Intimacy.”

‘“Kiss and Tell’ means the most to me,” she said. “People often view sexuality as purely biological. I wanted to show that it also has a social dimension, that it was shaped by society and carried social meaning. I was interested in different forms of sexuality, the decisions people made about sexual behavior and what motivated those decisions.

“When we got married, I told Gene that I really wanted children. He agreed to have a child, but any subsequent children would be adopted from backgrounds that made them harder to place. Gene had been concerned about overpopulation for a long time.”

The couple’s first child, Polly, was born in England. They later adopted Andrew and Monica in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Andrew is Black; his biological family moved from Mississippi to Michigan to find work in the automobile industry. His biological mother was very young and decided to place him for adoption. Monica is Black and Native American. The Ericksens say they were the first couple in Michigan who were permitted to have interracial adoptions.

Eugene, who taught statistics at Temple University, and Julia, both born in 1941, started taking dancing lessons on her 60th birthday to celebrate. For years they took part in amateur competitions. Julia was particularly well known for her West Coast Swing. She wrote “Dance With Me” about ballroom dancing.

Daughter Polly now lives in Vermont, Andrew lives in Phoenixville, and Monica lives on the same floor as her parents in Chestnut Hill, having moved there so she could help care for them. “I miss my garden in Mt. Airy the most,” said Julia, “and the hummingbirds.”

“I like all of Northwest Philadelphia,” she added. “The only thing missing here is really good restaurants. ... I loved being a sociologist. You can really engage with people. … We stopped dancing during COVID. You can’t really dance with a mask on your face.”

Julia is struggling now with pancreatic cancer and other age-related issues, but is grateful for family, friends and a life well lived.

“Monica has been unbelievably kind and helpful,” she said. “I don’t know what we would do without Monica and Andrew and Seniors Helping Seniors [the home care organization that provides workers to the couple]. Stacy and Sheila, who work for Mr. [Walter] Kimble, who owns the organization, are wonderful. They took us to Cake, and we loved it. ... I dream a lot, but I’m not sure what’s real and what’s a dream.”

Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.