By Marion Filler
His given name was Angus Murray Lindsley.
But to legions of friends, floral customers, students, and athletes in Greater Morristown, he was known as Muzz.
They will bid him farewell on Friday, June 8, 2018. Muzz Lindsley died suddenly last week at his home in Venice, Fla. He was 76.
An 11 am funeral service is scheduled at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, at the corner of Miller Road and South Street in Morristown. Burial will follow at Evergreen Cemetery.
A graduate of Morristown High School and Alfred University, Lindsley became a legendary teacher, coach and athletic director at several area schools, including St. Bernard’s, Morristown-Beard, Bayley Ellard, the Lafayette Learning Center and Morristown High.
For many years he also ran Elliott’s Flower Shoppe, the family business on Morris Avenue.
Lindsley’s passions were sports and flowers. An arrangement from Elliott’s was a work of love, but basketball and the Red Sox were even dearer to his heart.
Retired Superior Court Judge Kenneth MacKenzie, also a graduate of Morristown High, knew Muzz as a player and later as a coach.
“He wasn’t tall, but he was a good ball handler with a dependable outside shot,” MacKenzie recalled.
In a charity game against the Allentown Jets, who were defending champs of the Eastern League with several NBA-bound players on their roster, “Muzzy was able to move the ball and get off his shot against those pro players,” MacKenzie said.
Later, Lindsley coached basketball at Morristown and Bayley-Ellard high schools. “His teams were well-drilled and always in top shape. He lived and loved the game,” the judge said. The Daily Record named him Coach of the Year in 1967.
“There are so many good memories with Muzz,” said friend Milton Goldband. “The kids he helped, his passion for the game, his love of family, his sense of humor and respect for all people. For many years we sat together on the bench at Bayley enjoying each other’s plotting how to squeeze out one more win. Never a cross word or an I-told-you-so.”
Lindsley’s family can trace its New Jersey presence to 1667, when the first Lindsley arrived in Newark from Connecticut.
Tara Schaberg, assistant archivist at the Morristown & Township Library, found documentation of Muzz Lindsley’s great-grandfather, who was killed in the Civil War.
Records show the first post of the Grand Army in Morristown was renamed the “Ira J. Lindsley Post. No. 18” in honor of Captain Lindsley, who fell in the battle of Chancellorsville, on May 3, 1863.
Muzz Lindsey is survived by his wife of 55 years, Beverly (Morrison), and his children Leann, Marianna D’Elia (Michael) and Kristen Galdieri (Frank). He also is survived by grandchildren Nicholas, Megan, Jack, Paige, Andrew and Tatum; his brother Herb Lindsley and his wife Eileen, and nephew Herb Jr.; and many great nieces and nephews.
muzz or muzzy where in the same homeroom beginningg fresman year at morristown high in 1955 we both left moristown our senior year he to st brnards and me to peddie…he becme a teacher and me an attorney…i went to vietnam with another morisyown high fresman student named orin glanville who letered in wrestling and also died an early death in 1974 a vietan air comando by suicide……did muzz ever get hs front tooth fixed…bil now 83 from a va home in texas sept 30 2024…
Muzz,
Was my Father in law and all around great guy. He loved kids and his family and his Red Sox. He was very competitive, to the point he would even cheat at kids card games and coloring contests :-).
All around great guy and a lot of fun. He will be missed by anyone who knew him.
As a classmate of Muzz in MHS ’59, I can remember his sense of humor, great laugh, and watching him on the basketball court. Muzz usually had a parting shot on leaving a conversation making for more laughs, or confusion, as the case could be. Makes me smile to this day. A life well lived.
My heart goes out to Bev and Muzz’s family.