Dolores H. Boyd, 79; sold antiques in Ft. Washington

Lillian Dolores Horn Boyd, 79, a respected antiques dealer from Fort Washington, died of colon cancer July 4 at Keystone Hospice in Wyndmoor.

Known as Dolores, Mrs. Boyd was born in Queens, N.Y. In 1941, she moved with her family to Philadelphia, where she worked as a teenage model for the Tyler Fogg Agency. Her photograph appeared in advertisements for Bell Telephone and Strawbridge's.

Mrs. Boyd graduated from Germantown High School in 1947. There she met Irvin Basil Boyd Sr., whom she married two years later.

In 1952, the couple and a partner created Fyfe & Boyd Funeral Home at 7047 Germantown Ave. in Mount Airy.

While a member of Mount Airy Presbyterian Church, Mrs. Boyd was active in the Youth Ministry.

The couple sold the funeral home in 1968 and concentrated on their love of colonial American antiques. In 1959, they had established the Meetinghouse Antique Shop at 509 N. Bethlehem Pike in Fort Washington. It soon became a showplace for elegant examples of the colonial era.

The business was on the site of the former Whitemarsh Friends Meeting house, which the couple restored. The Boyds raised four children while running the business and going to antiques shows up and down the East Coast.

R. Scudder Smith, publisher and editor of Antiques and the Arts Weekly, said: "We have known the Boyd family and Meetinghouse Antiques for a great many years, and one of the pleasures of attending the shows in which they participated was visiting their booth. Irvin and Dolores always had time to talk."

The Boyds ran the business until 1987, when children Jonathan Horn Boyd and Priscilla Boyd Angelos bought it from them.

"The established foundation, and the family transition, were highly respected in the antiques community," according to a 2002 mention in Antiques and the Arts Online.

In later years, Mrs. Boyd was a member of the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill. She enjoyed travel, reading, and her home and family.

In addition to her husband and daughter, Mrs. Boyd is survived by sons Irvin Basil Jr. and Knickerbocker Stephen, a sister, and nine grandchildren. Son Jonathan died of brain cancer in 2002.

Services will be private.

Memorial donations may be made to the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, 8855 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia 19118.