Priscilla Allen

Priscilla W. Allen, 96, of Sandy Spring, Maryland, died September 2, 2018 in Peterborough, NH.  She was born November 15, 1921 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Leonard and Priscilla Wright.

She was educated at Windsor School in Milton, Massachusetts and at Vassar College (Class of 1944). After college she spent three years as a social aide to Marvin and Jeffrey Patterson, travelling to Peru, Belgium and Egypt on their Foreign Service assignments. In Egypt she met Francis O. Allen, also a Foreign Service officer. They married in November, 1947, after which they were dispatched to Baghdad, Iraq, where two of their four children were born. In 1951 her young family returned to America and settled in Sandy Spring, Maryland where Priscilla established a household and garden at Amersley, an historic Montgomery County farmhouse. Her twin sons were born there in 1953. Eight years of Foreign Service postings followed, in Germany, Egypt and South Africa. After 1963 the family stayed in the USA, and Priscilla finally had the time to build up the Amersley gardens. Amersley was a wonderful venue for entertaining guests at parties and celebrations which Priscilla hosted over many years.

Since 2014 she has lived with her son Peter in Temple, New Hampshire.  Even in her last year at a nursing home, Priscilla was charming and witty with staff and visitors.

Her husband Francis O. Allen pre-deceased her in 1991. Her brothers, Winslow and Leonard died in 2014 and 2001.

She is survived by her sister Cynthia Lasserre of Paris, France and by her four children:  David (Sarah Hollister) of West Chesterfield NH and Colrain, MA, Sherry of Washington, DC , Frank (Laura Towers) of Richmond VA and their son Walker, and Peter and his daughter Paulina, of Temple, NH, and by many nieces and nephews.

A private burial will take place in the family plot at Milton Cemetery, Milton, Massachusetts, where she will rest with her parents.

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