May 2, 2012
Payne, Priscilla
Priscilla Cobb Payne, aged 104, died at Fox Hill Village, Westwood, Massachusetts on April 30, 2012. Mrs. Payne was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and grew up in Newton, Mass. She was the daughter of the late well known authors, Bertha Browning Barnes and Ernest Codman Cobb, founders of the Arlo Publishing Company.
Mrs. Payne was formerly married to the late Dr William T. Doran Jr. and resided in Bronxville, NY. She was pre-deceased by her sister, Madeline Ware Cobb, her brother, Churchill Cobb, and her husband, William T. Payne. She is survived by her 3 children, Peter Doran of Belfast, Maine, Joanna Lane of Barnstable, and Priscilla Beecha of Kansas City, Kansas; 9 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren. Mrs. Payne graduated from Newton High School with the Class of 1925, and Dean College, Class of 1926. She received her B.S. degree in English and Sociology at Tufts University in 1930, and her M.Ed. degree in Guidance and Counseling from the University of Massachusetts. She also did graduate work at Harvard University and Boston University. Her career included employment executive at RH Macy in New York City, teacher in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and associate director of the Learning Disabilities Foundation and the Landmark Schools, in Prides Crossing, Mass. She was listed in Who’s Who of American Women. In Wellesley, she was active in the Council on Aging, the Youth Commission, as a Director of R.S.D.P. and she was acting president of the AARP. She was also an active alumnae of Tufts University and Dean College, a co-founder of the Parent’s Committee of Colby College, and she helped to organize the Friends of Framingham Women’s Reformatory. Gifts may be made in her memory to the Pearl S. Buck Foundation, at www.pearl-s-buck.org , or mailed toPearl S. Buck International Inc., 520 Dublin Road, Perkasie, PA 18944. Interment in Newton Cemetery will be held in June. A Memorial Service will be held at a time and place to be announced.
Comments(3)
Priscilla was one of my mother’s closest friends, and I was a big fan of Priscilla’s too. She and my mother played bridge at the Unitarian Church in Wellesley every Friday night for many years. After my mother died, Priscilla and I had lunch from time to time. She was a terrific gal – sensible yet sensitive – and a woman I enjoyed very much. I know she is in a better place.
Just Friday at a North Hill/Fox Hill bridge game I asked of Priscilla, your matriach, and to send my regards. I worked for her in 1968 at the Reading Research Institute in Wellesley and found out that my favorite childhood book was “Pennie” written by her father. I still have the copy of “Arlo” that she gave me. We continued our friendship at the Unitarian Church bridge game for more than 30 years.
Auntie Priscilla was one of my Mom’s closest friends and fondly remember her through the years as she never forgot to send me a birthday card every year and looked forward to her yearly Christmas note about her family. We reunited when my daughter attended college inBoston, when she was living in Wellesley and had the opportunity to visit with her at Fox Hill to chat and share stories. She was special and I will always miss her.
Ellen Veden
Princeton, NJ