Barbara Massey Horsman passed away after a short stay at Delaware Hospice Center in Milford on July 24, 2018 surrounded by her family.
She was born in Berlin and spent her early years enjoying Ocean City. She later moved to Hurlock and graduated from North Dorchester High School I 1955. Barbara attended Wilmington College earning a business certificate.
Married to the late Frank Horsman, Sr., a Maryland state trooper, she always found work as a bookkeeper in the region that he was assigned. With the introduction of computers, she took to the new technology like a duck to water, even learning to write DOS code. She stayed proficient in computers through most of her adult life using them both at work and home.
She retired in 1999, focusing on her passion as a genealogy researcher. She loved family history and even published a few books on the subject. An entire room of her home was packed with documents, books, and research material.
Family was always an important part of her life. She loved to host Sunday dinners "down the river" at their home near Vienna. It was truly the more the merrier. She spent her last few years living with her son John and wife Cindy near Milford.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Frank Horsman, Sr. who passed away in 2011. Her father, Edmund Massey was killed in action in 1945 in the European Campaign. Her mother, Maude Jayne Cross, stepfather Lewis M. Cross and brother William "Bill" Massey also preceded her.
She is survived by he sister, Susan Russell of Hallowell, Mass.; son, John, his wife Cindy of Milford; son, Frank, Jr. and his wife Linda of Cambridge. She is also survived by four grandchildren and nine greatgrandchildren who all live on Delmarva.
Funeral services will be held on Saturday, July 28, 2018 at 1 p.m. at Vienna United Methodist Church where the family will receive friends one hour prior to the service.
The family asks that in lieu of flower that a donation be made to Delaware Hospice, 16 Polly Drummond Center, 2nd Floor, Polly Drummond Shopping Center, Newark DE 19711 or to Parkinson's Disease Foundation, 200 SE 1st Street, Suite 800, Miami FL 33131.
Arrangements are in the care of Zeller Funeral Home in East New Market.