Frances Baxter Pilsbury

Frances Baxter Pilsbury died on April 11 at her residence in Concord , MA , at the age of 108. The daughter of Lincoln and Effie Frances Monroe Baxter, she grew up at the Baxter family residence on Foster Street in Brighton , MA .

Although accepted for admission to MIT, she attended Simmons College and graduated in 1923 with a degree in home economics. On February 21, 1925, she married Elmer Knapp Pilsbury of Somerville , MA . Together they raised two children, Robert and Sally. They lived first on Wyoming Road in Newton, and for the succeeding fifty years on Charlesden Park in Newtonville.

The family spent summers in Saco, Maine, first at Maine Stay, the Pilsbury family cottage, and later at their own Bayview cottage in Saco . Frances Pilsbury was a devoted and talented homemaker. She was active with both Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts, and a volunteer worker at the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Jamaica Plain , MA. An accomplished weaver, she served for a number of years as Dean of the Weaver’s Guild of Boston, the oldest such guild in the United States .

She was a dedicated refinisher of furniture with an able hand and a keen eye for what was worth refinishing. In the 1960s, she began to compile family records into carefully researched and meticulously detailed handwritten genealogies of her own and her husband’s families. These serve to this day as an invaluable resource to her many descendants and other relatives.

Mrs. Pilsbury is survived by her son, Robert Pilsbury and his wife Cora of Sudbury, MA; daughter Sally Tomczak of Wallingford, CT; former daughter-in-law Ruth Pilsbury of Huntersville, NC; grandsons Adam Pilsbury and wife Ruth of Huntersville, NC; Seth Pilsbury and wife Becky of Ashburnham, MA; Stephen Monroe Tomczak and wife Mary Ellen of Wallingford, CT; Andrew Tomczak and wife Evangelia of Wallingford, CT; two step-grandchildren, Collin Brown and Lindsay Kramer; seven great-grandchildren, and many nieces, nephews, and devoted friends. She was predeceased by her beloved husband Elmer, her brother Horace Baxter, and her son-in-law Stanley Tomczak.

FUNERAL SERVICE
Saturday - April 17, 2010 - 1:00 p.m.
Newton Cemetery Chapel
791 Walnut Street
Newton, MA 02459
617-332-0047

INTERMENT
Immediately following the service
Newton Cemetery

GIFTS IN HER NAME MAY BE MADE TO:
Weavers' Guild of Boston
P.O. Box 366
Andover, MA 01810
www.weaversguildofboston.org

Arrangements under the care of Glenn D. Burlamachi
Concord Funeral Home
74 Belknap Street
Concord, MA 01742
978-369-3388