Obituary: Priscilla Hall Waters Norton, 97, of Branford

Information via Guilford Funeral Home,

On December 4th, at her home in Stony Creek, Connecticut, Priscilla Hall Waters Norton, at 97, quietly joined those who have passed before. She was predeceased by her husbands, Dr. Levin L. Waters, IV and Dr. William S Norton. She is survived by her sons and daughters-in-law, Quint and Judy Waters, of North Marshfield MA, and Jonathan Waters and Michele Lanou Waters of Stony Creek, CT.

She is also survived by three beloved grandchildren, Asa Waters, Nathaniel Waters, and Emilie Waters Harris, and three great grandchildren, Liam, Tobin, and Charlotte Waters.Priscilla lived a long and interesting life, growing up in France, New York, and Connecticut with her artist parents Heinz and Jessie Hall Warneke. She was tapped for service in the OSS in the European theater during WWII. Married to Levin after the war, she raised two boys in Guilford, CT while pursuing her interest in antique houses and furniture.

She was active in local historic preservation. She was equally comfortable in work jeans with a hammer or in formal dress and pearls entertaining Nobel laureates. A gourmet cook with impeccable taste in art and antiques, she lived on an island, held a lobster permit, was a crack shot, and always had a dog beside her.

Priscilla loved to travel and delighted in sharing her life in Europe and travels with her children and grandchildren, instilling the love of culture in them. In her eighties, she embarked on a cruise around the world, collecting new friends as she went.

Later in life, when she started to slow down a bit, she authored two books, one with Dr. Howard Spiro about Dean Winternitz and the Yale Medical School and the other, a memoir of her lively childhood and war years.

Priscilla was known for her youthful spirit, humor, intellectual curiosity, empathy, and embrace of the art of living. Memorial services and burial will be private. Contributions in her memory can be made to The Union of Concerned Scientists, Two Brattle Sq, Cambridge, MA 02138-3780, Doctors Without Borders USA, P.O. Box 5030, Hagerstown, MD 21741-5030 and American Farmland Trust, 1150 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036and locally the Dorothy Whitfield Historical Society, Guilford Preservation Alliance, PO Box 199, Guilford, CT 06437.

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