WAYLAND: Rosalind Dickinson Kingsbury relished oysters plucked from the surf, extended tiebreakers on the tennis court, the appearance of rare birds at the kitchen feeder, and billowing spinnakers for a sail downwind.
She died on December 26, 2013, having enjoyed these, and the countless other joys of life for more than 91 years.
Born in Ipswich, Mass. in 1922 to Charles and Amy Goodhue, she grew up on the North Shore and in Amherst. She received degrees from UMass-Amherst and the Frances Stern Nutrition Center.
On December 23, 1944, she married Bruce F. Kingsbury days before he sailed to the Pacific with the Navy. They were inseparable for the next 55 years, until his death in 1999.
They built a home in Wayland and raised three sons, Keith, Mark, and Timothy. She taught kindergarten in the Wayland public schools, which allowed her to spend winters skiing in the White Mountains and summers at the family camp on Prince Edward Island. She was an astute observer of nature and the weather, and enjoyed poetry about both.
She led a relentlessly active life. She met Calvin Coolidge. She roared down Memorial Drive on the back of a motorcycle with a scion of the DuPont family. She played games of bridge with Robert Frost and watched a bathrobe-clad Kate Smith sing God Bless America from a balcony in New York City on V.E. Day.
She is preceded in death by her husband, Bruce, and her son, Mark, and her brother, Charles Goodhue, III. She is survived by her sons, Keith and his wife, Debbie of Middle Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia; Timothy and his wife, Mary Pat of Eliot, Maine; her daughter-in-law Marion Kingsbury of Canmore, Alberta; eight grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
A Memorial Service will be held on Feb. 1, 2014 at 1:00 pm at the First Parish Church, 50 Cochituate Rd. Wayland, Mass 01778. While she was an avid gardener and on the church flower committee, in lieu of bouquets, please consider a memorial contribution to the First Parish Church of Wayland or Sudbury Valley Trustees, 18 Wolbach Rd., Sudbury, MA 01776.