Sylvia Gold's Obituary
Sylvia Gold was born Sylvia Hornstein in Terre Haute, Indiana on June 10, 1920; she died on March 28, 2025, in Venice, Florida at 104 years old.
Born to Morris and Minnie (née Moskowitz) Hornstein, she was the middle daughter. Her older sister, Bernice (Buddy) and her younger brother Judah (Jud) are both deceased. At the age of 6, her family relocated to Brooklyn, NY on the same block as the Gold family. Sylvia became lifelong friends with their daughter, Sylvia (Sybbie) and would later become her sister-in-law as well. She would speak of Irv always as “the boy next door” and of their relationship as childhood sweethearts married 55 years.
Sylvia graduated high school and went to work as a bookkeeper in New York City. She and Irv married in 1941 and, shortly thereafter, Irv became an Army Major stationed in Iceland and Antwerp, Belgium. They were apart for six years, during which time she lived with her mother and sister and helped support the family.
When Irv returned from WWII, a family soon followed. Paul arrived in 1947 and Lois in 1951. The family of four left Brooklyn for a first house in West Hempstead, NY. A decade or so later, they built a home in Livingston, NJ. Sylvia and Irv traveled, played golf, and had an active social life. In 1988, they retired to a new house near family in Boynton Beach, FL at Indian Spring where Sylvia played golf until she was 90, long after Irv had passed away in 1997. She began sculpting in alabaster at the age of 75, and many family members treasure her creations. An avid reader, she enjoyed books and finished daily crossword puzzles until recently. She downsized to an apartment at the Delray Grande until she was 93, then she moved to Jacaranda Trace in Venice, FL to be near her son’s family.
Sylvia was an engaging, social person with many friends. She was a devoted wife and mother, sister, daughter, aunt, grandmother, great-grandmother, and great-aunt. She was the matriarch, having lived over a century through trials and tribulations as well as happy times—weddings, births, anniversaries, birthdays, so many memories.
Preceding her death was husband Irv, brother Jud Hornstein and his wife Thelma, sister Bernice Cohen and her husband Arthur, as well as sister-in-law Sylvia Brenner and her husband Eugene, brother-in-law Murray Gold, and niece Debra Brenner.
Sylvia is survived by son Paul and his wife Carolyn and daughter Lois and her husband Scot, grandson Adam and his wife Shannon, granddaughter Erin, and great-grandchildren Alex and Jakob Gold and Isabel Berry. She will be missed.
Tributes may be directed to Tidewell Hospice, Venice, with our family’s gratitude for their incredible care.
May her memory be a blessing.
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