Elinor Jones Clapp, a prominent former Rhode Island Republican Party official and leading children’s activist, died at home Thursday, after battling breast cancer.  She was 79.

Born in Boston, daughter of the late Harold and Rita Jones, she was raised in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico, where her father ran a sugar cane business.  She spent her summers in Hingham.

Mrs. Clapp attended The Branson School, an independent high school located in Marin County, north of San Francisco.  She was an alumna of Swarthmore College in Swarthmore Pa., class of 1946.  She was a two-time recipient of the Shane Award, Swarthmore’s highest award for volunteer service.  She also attended the Latin American Institute in N.Y.

After completing her education, Mrs. Clapp held various administrative positions for some of the nation’s leading movie producers.  She met her future husband in 1949 and they were married two years later. 

After living for many years in Barrington and Providence, R.I., where she and her husband raised their seven children, they retired to Duxbury in 1998, where they had maintained a summer residence since 1957. 

Even as a retiree, Mrs. Clapp was a visible member of the Duxbury community.  Like her husband, she was a devotee of sailing, and became one of the first women to participate in the rowing program at the Duxbury Bay Maritime School and was also an enthusiastic member of the Duxbury Yacht Club.

Mrs. Clapp was active in politics, serving as a delegate from Rhode Island at four Republican Party national conventions.  She also served on the Republican National Committee as a Rhode Island member throughout the 1980s; was on the national Steering Committee for George Bush for President in 1987; and was president of the New England Republican Council from 1986-1988.  She served as the deputy chairperson in Rhode Island for the Bush-Quayle campaign, and served President Bush on the committee for the selection of White House fellows.

Mrs. Clapp was a long-time champion for the underprivileged, especially children.  From 1975 to 1990, she was active on various committees and boards for St. Mary’s Home for Children, Rhode Island’s largest treatment facility for abused and neglected boys and girls.  In the mid-1980s, she served on both the Rhode Island state attorney general’s commission on the enforcement of child abuse laws and on the governor’s advisory commission for children and their families. 

Mrs. Clapp was the wife of the late Charles E. Clapp, II, a retired U.S. Tax Court judge who died in June 2004.  She leaves four daughters, Judith Clapp of Prescott, Ariz.; Martha Clapp Hall of Vernon, N.J., Loraine Clapp Codega of Barrington, R.I., Nancy Clapp Kerber of Hingham; three sons, David Clapp of Lake Forest, Ill., Peter Clapp of Rockport, Maine, Charles Clapp, III of Hingham, and 14 grandchildren.  She also leaves a brother, Frederic Jones of Fresno, Calif.

A memorial service will be held on Thursday, June 16, at 12 noon in St. John’s Church, 410 Washington Street, Duxbury.  In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to Jordan Hospital Club Cancer Center, Elinor J. and Charles E. Clapp II Memorial Fund, in Plymouth Mass.