Dr. Judith Holden Higgins

Dr. Judith Holden Higgins, 78, died December 24 after a short illness. She was a White Plains native and graduated from White Plains High School and from Simmons College. She received her Masters and Doctoral degrees from the School of Library Service at Columbia University, where she was a member of the Beta Phi Mu library honor society. For 27 years she was the library media specialist at Valhalla Middle/High School, where in 2001 the Library Media Center was named in her honor.

Mrs. Higgins had served on the library advisory boards of the Encyclopedia Britannica and Columbia University Press. She was a past president of the School Library Media Specialists of Southeastern New York, the College Club of White Plains, and the Westchester County Simmons College Club. A member of the White Plains Rotary Club, she was on the Board of the White Plains Beautification Foundation. She was a past co-president of the Highlands Civic Association and a longtime member of its Board of Directors. Mrs. Higgins was a member of the Board of Directors of the Ecumenical Food Pantry, where she had worked as a volunteer for many years. She was a member of the White Plains Woman's Club and a member of its grounds committee. In 2008, The White Plains Historical Society honored Mrs. Higgins as their Citizen Extraordinaire.

From 1951 to 1961, Mrs. Higgins was a reporter for Life Magazine, where she received awards for medical reporting from the American Heart Association and the National Association for Mental Health. She later worked in the magazine's Manners and Morals Department and as a consultant for Time-Life books.

Mrs. Higgins is survived by her son, James Edward Higgins; her daughter-in-law, Heather Richardson Higgins; three grandchildren, Delany, Randolph, and Holden; her brother, John F. Holden, Jr.; and a niece and nephew. Her husband, James Delany Higgins, died in 1997.

Interment will be at the Gate of heaven Cemetery, Hawthorne, NY.