Betty A. Prashker died July 30, 2024, at the Prashker family home In Alford. She was 99 years old.
Born in New York City in 1925 to Ellis Arnoff and Lillian Burger Arnoff, Betty fell in love with books at a very young age when she was confined for a year to a wheelchair with rheumatic fever. She went to Vassar College, where she was known for climbing out of her dorm room window after curfew for fun adventures with friends, cocktails, and conversation.
Betty aspired to be a great editor of important books – an aspiration which, over a career that spanned more than four decades, she achieved, despite the challenges of being a women editor in a then male-dominated industry. With an uncanny ability to recognize and maneuver around obstacles, hard work, and unyielding determination, she rose to the position of Editor-in-Chief, first at Doubleday and then at Crown Publishing Group.
Betty loved the Berkshires, purchasing the 18th-century farmhouse on Seekonk Cross Road in 1964. She was a fiercely competitive tennis player (notwithstanding her 5’2” stature), with an infuriating propensity for well-placed lobs and killer drop shots. She skied with her family at Butternut Basin from the day it opened. She was a regular patron of Tanglewood – except when it was Wagner when she would pronounce as perfectly obvious: “It’s too hot for Wagner.” Her sardonic quick wit was legendary, as was her storytelling, her ability to quote verses of poetry, rattle off sentences in French or Italian, or talk hard-core politics.
Everyone wanted Betty around their dinner table.
Betty was predeceased by her sister Shirley Baerwald and her brother Arthur Arnoff. Betty leaves behind three daughters, Susan P. (Geoffrey) Herman of Mount Vernon, Maine, Lucy (Thomas Curtin) Prashker of Alford, Massachusetts, and Marti P. Murray, of East Hampton, New York, six grandchildren, Christopher Park Herman of Levittown, New York, William Isaac Herman of Oceanside, New York, Peter Ellis Herman of Wayne, Maine, Jessica Lillian Murray of Nashville, Tennessee, Emily Murray of San Francisco, California, Alice Prashker Curtin of Alford, Massachusetts, five great-grandchildren, Lillian Herman, Parker Herman, Samuel Herman, Jane Herman, Willa Constance Bryan, and her many nieces, nephews, and friends of multiple generations who loved and admired her.
The family will welcome friends at the Prashker home in Alford on Friday, August 2 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Instead of flowers, donations can be made to C/O Finnerty & Stevens Funeral Home 426 Main St. Great Barrington, MA 01230 to Planned Parenthood or any other organization committed to protecting civil rights or supporting young musicians, all causes that Betty held dear throughout her life.
