Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard
Link copied to clipboard

Betty Horowitz, a longtime teacher in South Jersey, dies at 94

Mrs. Horowitz taught first grade for three decades. She enjoyed travel, politics, current events, reading, playing bridge, and the arts. She was a whiz at doing crossword puzzles.

Betty Horowitz
Betty HorowitzRead moreCourtesy of the Horowitz Family

Betty Horowitz, 94, of Marlton, a Burlington County teacher for many years, died Thursday, Sept. 10, of complications from a stroke at Samaritan, a hospice facility in Voorhees.

Mrs. Horowitz taught first grade in the Willingboro and Cinnaminson School Districts for nearly three decades.

Her son, Richard, who followed his mother’s footsteps into the field of education as a teacher and middle school principal, said she “was a very private person."

Born in Lakewood, N.J., she grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from City College of New York and a master’s degree in early childhood education from Adelphi University on Long Island.

Before moving to Willingboro in 1961, she was director of nursery schools in Valley Stream and then Levittown, both on Long Island.

A woman with progressive views, Mrs. Horowitz was politically active as a member of the League of Women Voters and Americans for Democratic Action. She also was a founding board member of a local New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

In 1972, she was elected as a delegate from Burlington County to the Democratic National Convention, a fact noted in local newspapers, her son said.

After retiring in 1986, she volunteered as a docent at the Rosenbach. The museum in Philadelphia contains rare books, manuscripts, and decorative arts collected by book dealers and brothers Philip and A.S.W. Rosenbach during the first half of the 20th century.

Mrs. Horowitz never missed doing the daily and Sunday New York Times crossword puzzles, and entered several of the newspaper’s puzzle-solving tournaments. She was an avid bowler, participating in league competitions with her teaching colleagues.

Mrs. Horowitz, the former Betty Sherman, was married for 65 years to Leonard Horowitz, an aerospace engineer and then a longtime junior high school teacher in Cherry Hill.

Their shared interests included European travel, politics, current events, reading, bridge, and the arts. They played tennis and swam every summer’s day at their apartment complex. He died in 2010.

In addition to her son, she is survived by son Don; four grandchildren; two great-grandsons; and two great-granddaughters.

Funeral services are private. She will be interred next to her husband, a World War II Army medic who participated in the Normandy invasion, at the Brig. Gen. William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Wrightstown.

Memorial contributions may be made to any charity. Condolence cards may be sent to the Bradley Funeral Home, 601 Route 73 S., Marlton, N.J. 08053.