Retired Oceanside teacher Helyn Horn, 107

Longtime Oceanside resident and retired teacher Helyn Horn died last month at age 107, her family said.

She was named Helen at birth but changed the spelling in high school -- just because she felt like it, said her son, M. Richard Horn of Fort Salonga.

"She came from a feisty family, and she was feisty even in recent years," he said. "She was in her 90s, and she was still driving -- driving women in their 80s to their . . . [social] club meetings in Rockville Centre."

His mother never bothered to legally change her name, he said, but in a less security-conscious era, that didn't seem to matter much.

She died Dec. 24. Her ashes will be interred Friday with her late husband, Maurice, in Long Island National Cemetery in Pinelawn. Maurice Horn, who died in 1968, had been an Army mechanic during World War I.

Helyn Horn was born in Jersey City, grew up in Westfield, N.J., and graduated in 1925 from New Jersey State Teachers Normal School, now known as College of New Jersey.

She taught briefly in New Jersey before taking a job in Freeport in 1927, but had to quit when she married in 1933 because female teachers could not be married in those times, her son said.

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She returned to teaching in 1947, focused mainly on kindergarten classes, and retired in 1972. At the time of her death, Horn was the oldest member of the New York State teachers' pension fund, a state spokesman confirmed Tuesday.

For the past 78 years she has lived in the same house on Sheldon Place, most recently with her only other child, daughter Adele Payerle.

Over the years, Horn regaled her family with stories of long-ago Long Island: when Oceanside ended in cattails at Waukena Avenue; when Sunrise Highway was unpaved; when speakeasies dotted Freeport during Prohibition; when Chwatsky's Department Store on Davidson Avenue was the big name in retailing.

"It was interesting to listen to her tell stories of her childhood, inventions and events she had seen, such as lamplighters in Jersey City, horse-drawn carts in New York and trolley transportation throughout the area," Richard Horn said.

She is also survived by three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. There will be a service at the cemetery at 1:30 p.m. Friday.