JFK Assassination Pre-Empted Her Life Magazine Profile: NJ 'Teacher Of Year' Dies At 100

LIVINGSTON, NJ — Lorraine Cicero Moritz, who passed away recently at 100, was an ambitious and smart woman who held several jobs before finding her "true calling" as an elementary school teacher in New Jersey. In fact, Life Magazine sent photographers to cover her after she won Teacher of the Year in 1963, her obituary says — but the story had to be shelved in favor of coverage of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Moritz, "an inspired educator of young children, died peacefully on Jan. 9, 2023 at Cape Cod Hospital of complications related to pneumonia," noted her obituary.

Moritz was born in Newark. She attended Barrington High School in the 1930s, the story notes, and won a scholarship to Pratt Institute at the young age of 16. While she loved fashion design, "She had to decline because her father considered her too young to live in New York," the story says.

Moritz graduated from Upsala College, worked in the engineering department of Bristol Myers, met husband Fred Moritz there, and eventually " found her true calling" as a teacher. She worked in schools in Clifton, New York City, and Livingston, and moved to Millburn and Livingston. Her interest in art and fashion inspired her to help her students put on plays, her obit says.

She's survived by relatives in North Jersey and New York City, including her brother, artist Carmen Cicero. Read her obituary here.