Obituary for Margaret Horsley

[Editor's Note: The following information derives from an obituary submitted by the family of Margaret Elizabeth Horsley.]

Margaret Elizabeth Horsley, MD, a long-time resident of Melrose, died on Tuesday, July 2 in Fort Worth, Texas. She was 90. 

Dr. Horsley not only lead a very eventful life around the globe, she was an ophthalmologist whose glaucoma research showed that it was worthwhile to screen everyone over 40 for glaucoma, especially African Americans.

Her research work — featured in the lead article in The Journal of the American Medical Association (March 15, 1958) — started a whole new trend in the country to screen even healthy adults for glaucoma. Glaucoma was at that time the number one preventable cause of blindness in the country. Her research also was mention in "Life" magazine.

Besides being one of the first board-certified women in ophthalmology, if not the first, she raised seven children, six of whom became physicians. She was a very well-rounded wife, mother, homemaker and church deacon. She spent most of her adult life living and practicing alongside her husband of 62 years, the late Earnest Horsley, in the Stoneham area.

The Horsleys practiced at New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham (as well as at other hospitals in the area). Ernie specialized in ear, nose and throat medicine. Their son Wilson Horsley also practiced ophthalmology with an office on the site of the former hospital. Three other sons and both daughters are also medical doctors.

Dr. Horsley was born in Calcutta, India to missionary parents Alfred and Bertha Youngberg. The family moved to South Dakota in 1929 when Dr. Horsley was seven, then quickly moved around with ministerial assignments in Texas, and ultimately in Saugus in 1941 where her father was responsible for churches in Lynn, Everett, Somerville and Stoneham.

Dr. Horsley attended Atlantic Union College and Columbia Union College. She sold religious books each summer to pay her way through college and then medical school at Loma Linda University in California where she met her husband who was then completing his EENT residency.

The young couple had sought a mission appointment while Dr. Horsley completed her ophthalmology training in Tennessee. In 1958, the Horsleys and their five young children went on a mission to Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. After five years in mission service, they returned to California, but soon were recruited to join New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham where they spent the rest of their careers (approximately 27 years).

In 2003, Ernie and Elizabeth retired to Fort Worth, Texas and lived near their daughter Sheila and her eight children. Sheila and her husband are physicians at the Hugley Adventist Hospital in Fort Worth.

Dr. Horsley is survived by her seven children: Will of Massachusetts, Brooks of Kentucky, Ross of New York, Heidi, Sheila, and Sterling, all of Texas, and Joshua of California; 20 grandchildren and eight great grandchildren, as well as numerous nephews and nieces. In addition, her sister Olive Hoogenboom and her brother John Youngberg survive her. She was pre-deceased by her husband Ernie and brothers Stephen, Russell and Gordon Youngberg.

A memorial service will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 12 at the Seventh-day Adventist Church, 29 Maple St., Stoneham.