Hortense (Honey) Kassoy, who died at 96 on July 5, 2013, was an artist as adept with a chisel as she was with a paint brush.

Honey, as she was known to all, moved with her husband Bernard (Bernie) to the Amalgamate Houses in 1950 and they quickly became active members of the community.

Among the many activities Honey as she was known to all embraced were the Amalgamated Nursery School, the co-op's visual arts committee, the costume ball committee, a publication called Co-op Voices and the Apricot theater group. Her sculpture, "Maternal Force," is a permanent fixture in the courtyard of the two Amalgamated towers located on Sedgwick Avenue between Saxon and Dickenson avenues.

She was a teacher at Evander Childs High School and a founding member of the Bronx Council on the Arts who was instrumental in founding the Bronx Museum of the Arts.

Honey was corresponding secretary for the United Stats Committee of the International Association of Artists, a branch of UNESCO, from 1979 to 1993.