Priscilla Richardson Sangster, a long-time Duxbury resident, died Nov. 2 in Hightstown, NJ, after a long illness. She would have been 88 on Nov. 4.  She was a well-known figure in Duxbury, where for 19 years she was managing editor of The Clipper.

Mrs. Sangster was born in 1921 in Maplewood, NJ, the third of four children of Elizabeth and Percy Bacon Richardson. Her father was a direct descendent of Priscilla Alden, after whom Priscilla was named.  She graduated from Columbia High School, N.J.  Following her graduation and during WWII, she worked for the Red Cross and was a member of the Junior League. She married Daniel Hill Sangster of Los Angeles in 1950, and the couple lived in New York City, where their daughter Rebecca was born in 1956.

Mrs. Sangster worked in the New York City for Arthur Flynn Associates, sports publicists, where she handled accounts for baseball great Willie Mays and the restaurateur Toots Shor.

In Greenwich Village in the 50’s, she and her husband and other Adlai Stevenson Democrats collectively became known as the Village Independent Democrats, campaigning for local issues.  Mrs. Sangster’s civic activity and her work as a part-time librarian at PS41 when her daughter Rebecca attended school there made Mrs. Sangster a familiar face on W. 10th Street, where the Sangsters lived in a brownstone once owned by Mark Twain.

In 1963, the Sangsters relocated to Duxbury.  Her 19-year tenure as the Clipper’s managing editor put her at the hub of Duxbury news, which she loved.  She was a charter member of the Clamshell Alliance, a grassroots group that campaigned successfully against allowing the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant to be constructed on land adjacent to the Myles Standish National Monument.   As a member of the Alden Kindred Society, she worked for many years to preserve Priscilla and John’s Pilgrim homestead. She was a member of the Duxbury Art Association, the Duxbury Yacht Club, and Pilgrim Church of Duxbury.

In retirement, the Sangsters lived briefly in New Bern, N.C., and Camden, S.C. After her husband died in 2000, Mrs. Sangster returned to live in Duxbury until 2004 when she moved to the Meadow Lakes community near Princeton to be closer to her daughter.  

Mrs. Sangster leaves her daughter, Becky and son-in-law, Stephen Lewis; a sister, Betty R. Moran, of Annapolis, Md.;  her two brothers, the late David Bacon Richardson and John Adams Richardson;  and  two grandsons.

A.S. Cole Sons & Co., Cranbury, NJ, is handling funeral arrangements, and a memorial service will be held in Duxbury.   Donations in Mrs. Sangster’s name may be made to the NY Public Library, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, 476 Fifth Ave., NY, NY 10018.