Barbara Ellen Karasoff

    Mrs. Barbara Ellen Karasoff, a 55-year area resident,

died Friday, October 26, 2018, at her home in Greenbrae, CA.  She was 94.

The daughter of the late Dr. Simon S. Segall and Fanny Grossblatt Segall of the Bronx and later Manhattan, New York City, she was born March 12, 1924 in the Bronx.  Her childhood was filled with extended family, including aunts, uncles, and an assortment of cousins, with whom she was very close. She spent many childhood summers with her father’s sister and her family in Burlington, VT, and always treasured her memories from that special time.

She graduated from Evander Childs High School in the Bronx in 1941 with Bronze and Silver Pins. Her high school yearbook noted: “Sweet Barbara sings and reads and has her fun: All love to have her round the class since she is such fun”.  

After completing high school, she moved to Manhattan, where she attended Hunter College during World War II.  She graduated from Hunter College in 1945, with a major in Speech and Dramatics, and was an enthusiastic member of the Gilbert and Sullivan Society.  She focused on singing, both operatic and lieder, and attended the opera regularly.

Always a very intellectually curious person, and an avid reader, she began her career after she graduated from college, working at the Saturday Review Magazine in Manhattan, a job she loved, and where she met many intellectually prominent people from the literary world of that time, people she recalled vividly later in life with great respect and admiration.

While living in Manhattan, she met and fell in love with her beloved future husband, Dr. Louis Karasoff, a dentist from Middletown, who had served in the U.S. Army in Europe with distinction. The two of them married in New York City, after which Barbara gave up the bustle of big city life to live in Middletown, where she and Louis started their family. 

Barbara became an active part of the Middletown community. She spent countless hours organizing props for the “High Fever Follies”, and loved her time as a cubscout den mother.  She was a proud member of the Sisterhood at Temple Sinai and was a member of Hadassah.  In later years, she and her husband moved to Winterton, in Sullivan County, where she worked long and hard as a member of the Town of Mamakating Planning Board, eventually serving as its Chairperson.   

Barbara was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother and friend. She and Louis loved to travel, and they took many well-remembered trips to Europe, Asia and beyond during the 53 years of their marriage.

Survivors include her children Andrew Simon Karasoff of New York City, NY, Paul (Roland Pena) Karasoff of San Francisco, CA, and Patricia (O.H.Perry Lloyd) Karasoff Lloyd of Tiburon, CA: grandchildren, Benjamin Alexander Lloyd and Sarah Elizabeth Lloyd of Tiburon, CA.  She was predeceased by her husband Dr. Louis Karasoff and her brother Manley Segall.

Private graveside services will be held on Friday, November 2, 2018 at Temple Sinai Cemetery in Circleville, NY. Cantor Ted Prosnitz will officiate.

Memorial contributions in Barbara’s memory may be made to the Young Concert Artists, Inc., 1776 Broadway, Suite 1500, New York, NY 10019.

Arrangements have been entrusted to the Cornelius, Dodd & Connell Funeral Home, Middletown, NY. 

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Barbara Ellen Karasoff, please visit our floral store.