The 76-year-old has spent every one of these years living in New Brighton and says it's the people that have kept her around.
"It's the community. I think New Brighton's community is different from other communities, people care about one another."
Mrs Butterfield went to New Brighton District High School [which became Central New Brighton School] and later attended Linwood High School. Her mother Doris Goodlad and grandmother Flora Speechly both lived in New Brighton.
Mrs Butterfield has been New Brighton Museum's secretary for the last six years and between 1981 and 1999, you might have seen her behind the checkout at New Brighton's old Countdown supermarket.
She said of her time at Countdown: "I absolutely loved it. . . everybody knew me you see, so they'd come into Countdown and they'd cause great traffic jams because they'd want to be at my checkout."
She said she found the same sense of community when she started volunteering at New Brighton Museum.
"I love meeting the local people. They come in and most of the time I know them and they'll want to reminisce.
"For them, it brings back so many memories . . . sometimes they find grandad in some of the old surf club photos. So many memories."
She married her husband of 52 years, Canterbury rugby league player Errol Butterfield at New Brighton Methodist Church in 1967 and they had two children Lynda Butterfield who lives in Parklands and Jill Genet who moved to Australia.
Eroll, who was the brother of Jock Butterfield, one of the Kiwi rugby league team's highest capped players, died in July.
Said Mrs Butterfield: "He [Eroll] loved New Brighton too . . . he loved the Brighton workingmen's club, he was a life member there and everybody knew him . . . he was very community-minded as well."
Mrs Butterfield was a close friend of fellow New Brighton Museum volunteer Margaret Kelso who Pegasus Post reported died in April. Mrs Kelso was honoured at the 2017 New Zealander of the Year awards, when she was named in the local hero category
for her contribution to New Brighton.
Mrs Butterfield said it was friendships like the one she had with Mrs Kelso, which had seen her develop such a strong connection to the seaside suburb.
"Brighton is very, very community-minded.
"It's a lovely place to live, it really is."
