Elizabeth R. “Betsey” Kahn, an educator, civic leader and docent at the Jewish Museum of Maryland, died in her sleep Aug. 20 at Brightview Senior Assisted Living in Columbia. The former Guilford resident was 98.
Elizabeth Rosenfeld, daughter of Moses Wiesenfeld Rosenfeld, a lawyer, and Helen Rosenbaum Rosenfeld, a singer and artist, was born in Baltimore and raised in Druid Hill.
She was a direct descendant of the Jewish families who established the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation and Chizuk Amuno Congregation.
A graduate of Forest Park High School, she worked as a sales associate selling women’s suits at Hutzler’s department store in downtown Baltimore during World War II, while spending evenings dancing at the USO with servicemen, family members said.
After marrying Philip Kahn Jr. in 1947, she left her job at Hutzler’s to raise their two daughters.
Mrs. Kahn, who earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Johns Hopkins University, began teaching at the old Pimlico Junior High School before joining the faculties of several parochial schools, including the School of the Cathedral, Grace & St. Peter’s and Immaculate Conception School in Towson. She stopped teaching in 1982.
After retiring, she turned to volunteering and assisting her husband, who was vice president of J. Schoeneman Co., one of the largest men’s clothing manufacturers in the city’s old Garment District, in writing two books, “A Stitch in Time: The Four Seasons of Baltimore’s Needle Trades” and “Uncommon Threads: Threads that Wove the Fabric of Baltimore’s Jewish Life.”
While working with her husband, she was also a member of WISH — Women in Self Help — a telephone crisis-referral service.
“Betsey found her true passion later in life volunteering at the Jewish Museum of Maryland in Baltimore — first as a docent and later as a front desk greeter,” according to a biographical profile of Mrs. Kahn.
“Betsey brought a warm smile, enthusiasm, knowledge of Baltimore Jewish history, and love of the Jewish Museum of Maryland to her volunteering,” wrote Wendy Davis, volunteer coordinator for the Jewish Museum of Maryland, in an email. “Fellow JMM volunteers who interacted with Betsey when she was a front desk greeter shared that Betsey was very friendly, welcoming and interesting.”
A resident for nearly 50 years of Winthrop House in Guilford, Mrs. Kahn was known for her Japanese flower arranging, sewing, knitting and needlepoint.
She and her husband, who died in 1998, had a significant collection of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) monochrome porcelains.
She was a member of the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation Sisterhood and a co-founder of the Baltimore City-County Garden Club.
A memorial gathering will be held at noon Nov. 10, and the family asks those planning to attend to notify them at betsey1926@gmail.com
She is survived by her two daughters, Beth Kahn Leamna and Lina Lee Kahn Liebold, both of Columbia; a granddaughter; a great-grandson; and several nieces and nephews.
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