A graduate of William Paterson College, with a major in communications, Murphy was employed as a full-time legislator and lived in Morris Plains, New Jersey.
She was elected to the Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders, serving in office from 1984 to 1993.
Murphy was a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee on Environmental Litigation from 1989 to 1991, served on the New Jersey Commission on County and Municipal Government in 1991 and 1992, and served on the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Local Government and Small Town Advisory Committee starting in 1993.
[2] In order to accommodate hunters who had more deer meat than they could eat and to help feed the hungry in New Jersey, Murphy proposed legislation to allow food banks and other charitable organizations to accept venison that was cleaned and cut by butchers approved by the New Jersey Department of Health.
In February 2001, a special convention of district Republicans chose Joseph Pennacchio to fill the General Assembly seat vacated by Murphy.