I am sad to announce the passing of a dear friend of mine, Nancy Horton, who died this morning in Athens. Nancy was a poet of distinction and the daughter of George Horton who was U.S. Counsul General in the Near East in 1922 when the ancient, Christian city of Smyrna was burned by Turkish troops. He saved many lives at the risk of his own and chronicled the destruction of the City in his seminal book, The Blight of Asia, considered “sacred” by many.
Nancy was known to all who knew and loved her as the faithful and passionate “Keeper of Her Father’s Flame.”
Miss Horton was 103 years old. She passed away this morning in an ambulance on her way to a hospital in Athens. Miss Horton lived in Voula during the last three decades of her life and had a home in Washington, D.C. prior to that. She was well-known for her poetry readings with Greek themes. Miss Horton gave readings at the Folger Shakespeare Library in the District, spoke on BBC, appeared frequently on Greek television, and lectured extensively on Asia Minor in the United States, Greece, and Australia.
