Betty Louise Radice

Betty Louise Radice, 86, of Palm Beach Gardens, FL, passed away Thursday, October 13, 2016. Born in Le Mars, Iowa in 1929, her family were Dutch immigrants who lived in the small farming community of Sioux Center, Iowa, and moved to California during the Great Depression. Betty Lou grew up in the Pasadena area and was an accomplished violinist from a very early age, playing as a soloist with the Pasadena Youth Orchestra and on film soundtracks with prominent musicians such as Andre Previn and Arthur Rubinstein. She fondly remembered playing duets as a child with Shirley Temple.

She attended the University of Southern California where she focused on anthropology and Spanish, disciplines that would influence many of her life choices and her open embrace of other cultures. Just shy of graduation in 1952, she married Mark Manouchehr Houshmand, with whom she had four children and gave up her professional goals in order to be a mother. In 1959 the family moved to the Philippines, where they lived until moving to Iran in 1970. She divorced in 1974 and remained in Iran, where she founded a company that imported books for university libraries.

In 1979, she married Arthur Radice of New York City, a prominent real estate developer, and they returned to Florida following the Iranian revolution. They lived in Boca Raton and Ocala until Arthur passed in 2010, at which time Betty moved to Palm Beach Gardens. She was very active in Arthur’s business ventures, and instrumental in the design of La Residence in Boca Raton as well as the design and management of the Quiet Oaks Assisted Living Facility in Ocala, FL. She also returned to the violin and was a beloved teacher to many violin students in Florida.

She is survived by her children Zara, John, and Roshan Houshmand, and Erika Houshmand Stilwell, of whom she was infinitely supportive and proud of their accomplishments in the arts, in business, and as world citizens; by her grandchildren Colin Wright, Haleh and Ariana Stilwell, Ben Houshmand, Zara May Houshmand, and Caleb Wilding, for whom she was a creative, stimulating, and guiding presence; and by her dear Cookie, for whom she was all and everything.

Funeral services will be held at 1pm, Friday Oct. 28 at Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens, 200 West Copans Road, Pompano Beach, FL. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to More Than Conquerors Life Center (561-329-0173 www.mtcm.com).