Betsy Lampl, who loved opera and an ocean breeze, dies at 88.

Betsy Lampl, who passed away Sept. 27 at the age of 88, was a longtime Riverdale resident.

Neighbors might remember chatting with her at the Tibbett bus stop or at the Riverdale Senior Center. She was a lover of cats, dogs, pigeons and elephants. She also loved the ocean.

She was a public-school English teacher and later, a legal secretary. She played banjo, trumpet, piano and, as a teenager, performed in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas for the American Savoyards.

She moved to Riverdale with her second husband, Abe Silverman, a musician, in 1978. She married Paul Lampl, an architect, in 1990 and they lived in the Blue Building for many years.

She was previously married to Howard Kahane, a philosopher and author of Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric, and Logic and Philosophy. He was the father of her only child, Bonny Kahane. 

She is survived by her younger brother William, his daughter, Jasmine, and her cousin, Betty.

Her cat, DiGi, now shares an apartment with her daughter.