Betsy Henning; family became her career

BETSY H. HENNING

Betsy H. (Cohen) Henning, who devoted her life to her family, died of cancer at her Boston home yesterday. She was 66.

Born in Newton, she earned a degree in music from Boston University in 1963. After graduation, she taught music at the Fieldston School in Riverdale, N.Y., and worked at several advertising agencies in New York City.

In 1969, she moved back to Boston and married TV newsman John Henning.

Family was the center of her life, her husband said, recalling the many hours she spent at her two sons' football and baseball games and helping the boys with their homework.

"I think parenting was a passion for her," Henning said. "She's a very strong lady. She knew what she wanted, and I think she really made sure that she spent the time to raise her kids the way she thought they should be raised."

"She was devoted to being a parent like any other person would have been to their profession, because she treated it like a profession," said her son Gregory of Boston. "She was an expert at her craft. . . . We use sports analogies around the house and in sports, she'd be a 'go-to' guy."

Mrs. Henning also supported a wide range of charitable organizations in the city, including the National Head Injury Foundation and Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, helping to organize dinners and events to raise money for those causes.

Passionate about music and dance, Mrs. Henning attended Boston Symphony Orchestra concerts regularly with her husband for almost 40 years. As a young girl, Mrs. Henning had danced in shows, her husband said, and in the early 1960s she ran the ticket counter at the Cape Cod Melody Tent in Hyannis.

She enjoyed traveling and socializing with a wide circle of friends, her husband said. After she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1991, and survived, that circle grew to include a network of other cancer survivors.

In addition to her husband of 39 years and son Gregory, she leaves a son Matthew W. of Winchester; a sister, Susan Grace Cohen of New York City; and two grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at the Levine Chapel in Brookline.