PRINCETON: Bench, garden dedicated to Evelyn Voorhees

Evelyn Voorhees’ friends on Friday remembered a woman who would do anything for anyone.

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
   Evelyn Voorhees’ friends on Friday remembered a woman who would do anything for anyone.
   A bench and small garden were dedicated at Spruce Circle — a 50-unit residential property that the Princeton Housing Authority manages — in honor of the past authority board member. The memorial, taking place indoors because of the extreme heat, paid tribute to “a person that affected everyone she met in a God-like way,” said Linda Sipprelle, a commissioner on the Housing Authority.
   Born in 1934 in New Brunswick, Ms. Voorhees lived most of her life in that community before relocating to Princeton.
   Ms. Voorhees, 76, served eight terms as a member of the Housing Authority Board. She also worked for the Princeton Senior Resource Center. Princeton Councilman Lance Liverman, who attended Friday’s memorial, called her a “great worker.”
   Ms. Voorhees had her office at Spruce Circle, where she also lived. She retired in October 2010, a month before she died.
   ”I never heard anyone say a bad word about her,” said William Fowler, who knew Ms. Voorhees for about 15 years, at Friday’s memorial.
   During a service that included prayer and song, one resident of the complex, a native of Hong Kong, got up to sing “Amazing Grace” in Mandarin.
   Delores Brown, a Princeton resident, said she got to know Ms. Voorhees through the First Baptist Church, the congregation that Ms. Voorhees belonged to. She said they knew each other for “many years,” a woman that Ms. Brown affectionately referred to as “Evie.”
   Ms. Voorhees’ daughter, Deborah Taylor, got emotional when she began her remarks to an audience of mostly senior citizens. Ms. Taylor told them that her mother “loved you the minute” that each one of them walked through the door.