Valley Stream Herald’s founding editor dies at 87

Martha Lipchitz Jacovides, the founding editor of the Valley Stream Herald in 1990, came to the end of her life on November 4th, 2023. She was 87 years old and had been living in Belmont, MA. The cause was congestive heart failure.

Jacovides, born in Lowell, MA in 1936, graduated from Lowell High School, class of ‘52, where she was a member of the newspaper staff, and from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, ’56, where she was a writer on the Collegian. She arrived in New York City in 1956 where she worked for two trade publications.

In 1957, she passed the New York City teacher exam and was assigned to Wadleigh Junior High School in Harlem, where she taught English and supervised the production of the school newspaper and yearbook. There, she met history teacher, Michael Jacovides, a Manhattan native, who was a history teacher at Lawrence High School. They were married in 1961 and lived on Long Island for 45 years, where they raised two daughters in Valley Stream, Melina and Mary Beth, who both graduated from Valley Stream Central High School, Class of 1982 and 1984 respectively.

In 1973, Jacovides who had continued writing freelance, agreed to edit the Malverne Times, a local weekly being started by three Malverne residents. In 1981, it was bought by the publisher of the Valley Stream MAILeader who named her its editor. “I was traded like a ball player,” she said.

In 1991, she founded a new weekly, The Valley Stream Herald, for the Richner family already established with Heralds elsewhere on Long Island’s south shore. These were, she said, “the best years of my career because I was working for two brothers who truly cared for and supported local journalism.” In the course of her career, Jacovides won awards, three of which recognized her editorial writing, despite that “I know my friends considered me quite opinionated, but I really preferred to report hard news.”

After her husband retired from Lawrence High School, Jacovides, a life-long asthmatic, reluctantly agreed to retire also, in 1994, so that they could live in Arizona in the winters.

In 2006, she and her husband moved their permanent home from Valley Stream to Belmont, MA, where her grandchildren were growing up. Her husband of 61 years, Michael, died in 2022. She is survived by her daughter, Melina Jacovides and son in law, Mark Wagner of Belmont, MA; and by her daughter, Mary Beth Jacovides, of Cambridge; and by three grandchildren, Justin, Evan and Adeline Wagner. She is also survived by brothers Joseph W. Lipchitz and William F. Lipchitz, and their families in Lowell, MA.

For further information please visit the Brown and Hickey Funeral Home website BrownAndHickey.com in lieu of flowers, a donation in her name may be made to the Belmont Library Foundation: BelmontLibraryFoundation.org/Get-Involved/Donate.