Obituary: Remembering Public Servant and Foxborough Resident Margaret (Peg) Lincoln Bradner

Editor's note: The following obituary is courtesy of Roberts & Sons Funeral Home.

Margaret (Peg) Lincoln Bradner was born, at home, in Mount Carmel, Conn. on June 6, 1919, to Francis French Lincoln and Charlotte Treadwell Lincoln and died at the age of 93, at home, in Foxborough on Dec. 7, 2012.

Peg Bradner went to work for the US War Production Board after graduating in 1942 from Hood College, where she studied economics. She married Mead Bradner in 1943 and worked at Westinghouse until the birth of the first of what was to be six children. She considered being a mother and housewife a serious career and managed to simultaneously continue her writing on diverse areas of interest and active volunteering for the Boyden Library and for both the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts

When the youngest of the children entered high school, Peg, because of her life long love of books and research, went back to school, completing in 1969 her Master of Library Science degree at University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Library and Information Studies (GSLIS). She began her career as a research librarian at the Natick Massachusetts Public Library. In about 1973 she became Library Director at the Mansfield Massachusetts Public Library, from which she retired in 1984.

At The Dedham Historical Society, Peg continued her library career, now unpaid, by professionally organizing this most important research collection, retiring after another 10 years of service, for a second time at age 85. Peg’s last big public service project was to spend thousands of hours and close to two decades creating a searchable index of Foxborough-related newspaper articles from 1796 to 1955.

Mrs. Bradner is survived by her six Bradner children, Scott of Cambridge; Lincoln of Carlsbad, Calif., Kay of San Francisco, Calif.; Allen of Foxborough; Vern of Middlesex, N.J. and Grant of Taunton. Nine grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren, as well as by her sisters, Lu Martin of Orford, N.H. and Anne Welch of Harwich. Mary B. Lincoln, also a sister, died in 1936.

Peg was respected and loved by all for her quiet wisdom, wide range of interests, low-key New England practicality, enjoyment of others, kindness and integrity. She will be greatly missed.

Funeral Information

Arrangements are under the care of the Roberts and Sons Funeral Home, Foxborough. To light a candle in Peg’s memory please visit the funeral home web site at www.robertsandsonsfunerahome.com. For additional information please call (508) 543-5471.

Donations Information

In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to the Friends of the Boyden Library in Foxborough (16 Chestnut Street suite 210,Foxboro, MA, 02035), where Peg was a library trustee for many years.