Musia G Lakin

Musia G Lakin (“Mussie” to her friends), beloved daughter, wife, mother, and grandmother, died June 10, 2025 at the age of 99. Funeral services were held at Beth El Congregation.

Musia was born January 10, 1926 in what is now Poland to Bernard Gingold and Miriam Weizman Gingold. The youngest of two girls, she traveled to the United States along with her parents and her sister Diana at the age of two and a half. Her family made a home in Chicago, where Musia grew up steeped in both American culture and Jewish and Yiddish songs, folktales, and customs. Although she was never strongly religious, she carried her devotion to Judaism and the Jewish people throughout her life.

Musia was an ardent Labor Zionist, participating in youth groups and summer camps devoted to the movement and dreaming of one day moving to what would become Israel to live an egalitarian life close to the land. Those activities connected her with a young man with similar goals who she quickly fell in love with - her husband, Martin “Mutty” Lakin, of blessed memory. Mussie and Mutty planned a future together, where they would move to Israel, she would teach young children, and he would help make the desert bloom by working as a farmer. They pursued this in their studies, with Musia pursuing Early Childhood Education while Martin went to agricultural school. When Mutty joined the Army Air Corps to fight in World War II, Musia traveled across the country to marry her sweetheart before he deployed to the Pacific.

After the war, Musia and her husband fulfilled their dream of helping to build a Jewish homeland, moving to British-controlled Palestine and working on a kibbutz. Both Musia and Martin also supported the fight in other ways, with Musia helping to spy for the Haganah, the Jewish community’s defense force before the establishment of the state of Israel. Although they were not able to be present when the state was founded and moved back to the U.S. permanently in the late 1940s, both Musia and Martin remained devoted to a secure and flourishing Israel throughout their lives.

After her husband earned his PhD in Psychology from the University of Chicago in 1955, the couple moved to Durham, NC with their two children, Neema and Michael, where Martin became a professor of psychology at Duke University. When her children were old enough, Musia, started teaching again, becoming director in 1966 of what was first known as Duke Preschool, then the Duke University Preschool and Primary Program, and eventually just Duke School. Musia was instrumental to the school's early growth, helping to add the first kindergarten and first grade classes and setting early standards for the school’s approach. In doing so, she helped build a Durham institution that two of her grandchildren would later graduate from. Musia, whose smile would immediately welcome everyone, was devoted to family and an even more doting grandmother to her 5 grandchildren, Susannah, Amanda, Allie, Daniel, and Amy. She was a pillar of and enthusiastic participant in her community, leading classes, singing in the Triangle Jewish Chorale, and writing dozens of stories and essays about her life and family. 

Musia is preceded in death by her husband Martin Lakin and her sister Diana Gingold. She is survived by her two children Neema Dainow and Michael Lakin, her 5 grandchildren, and one great grandchild, Marty. In lieu of flowers donations can be sent to the Triangle Jewish Chorale.