Elizabeth Galitzine

Lila G. Whitton, who was born into Russian nobility but had lived in the United States since 1936, died Nov. 25 of heart failure at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center before doctors could repair a broken hip.

A memorial service for Mrs. Whitton, who was 78 and had lived in Elkridge Estates with a sister for about 10 years, was to be conducted at 2:30 p.m. today in the chapel of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, North Charles Street and Melrose Avenue, Baltimore.

The former Princess Elizabeth Galitzine was born on the estate of relatives in the province of Kazan on the Volga River. Her father, Prince Leon Galitzine, was the last imperial governor of the nearby province of Samara before the Russian Revolution.

In 1917 her family left Russia and she lived in Italy and in Nice, France, before coming to this country. Mrs. Whitton had been a treasurer of the Cosmopolitans social club after moving to Baltimore.

Before moving to Baltimore, she lived in Princeton, N.J., where her husband, John Boardman Whitton, an authority on international law, was a professor at Princeton University. He died in 1977. She is survived by a sister, Tatiana King of Elkridge Estates; three nephews; and six nieces.