Florence Morton

Florence Morton passed away on Friday, May 7, 2021, three weeks short of her 97th ­birthday.  She spent her last days surrounded by her family and left us peacefully.

With her sister Bea and her brother Irving, she grew up in the Bronx in NYC.  She graduated near the top of her class from Morris High School and then received a bachelor’s degree from Hunter College.  While working at the NYC Department of Welfare she met her future husband, Arthur.  After getting married and starting her family, she worked as an elementary school teacher for many years, surrounding her students with love and support.  Her passion for books lead her to work as a librarian, and she then received her Master’s in Library Science while working full time and raising her family.  She finished her career as librarian in a NYC high school.  She and her family split their time between Douglaston, NY during the school year and Smallwood, NY in the Catskills during the summer months.

In retirement she and Arthur relocated to Lauderhill, Florida and continued to spend their summers in Smallwood; they loved travelling and ultimately visited numerous Elder Hostels to continue their education and enjoyment of the outdoors.

After Arthur’s passing she relocated to Coconut Creek, FL.  Making many new friends, she continued her passion for teaching, books and libraries, running the North Regional Broward County Library Tutoring Program which matched senior citizens with inner city elementary school students to help with their reading.  She tutored Russian immigrants in English, and continued to be very active with the local B’nai Brith.  These activities led to many honors and awards, including an invitation to the White House to meet the president.  She discovered that she loved telling jokes, and many dinner parties would find her telling stories to surprised friends.  She loved watching the news and engaging in political discussions, and proudly voted right through the 2020 election.

Florence was passionate about her family and extremely proud of her children.    She instantly fell in love with her grandchildren, and was an incredible grandma.  She loved making Halloween costumes for them, and helped them develop a love of reading, sharing stories and books.  Holidays together were always special events.

She ultimately moved to Wellesley, Massachusetts to be closer to her family.  She is survived by her daughter, Susan Morton, along with her son Paul Morton, his wife, Jayne Dorfman, and her grandchildren, Melissa Morton and Matthew Morton.  Her warmth, kindness, humor, intelligence and good spirits are already missed.

The funeral will be private.  In lieu of flowers, she would have appreciated a contribution to any charity of your choice that focuses on enriching libraries or improving the lives of children.