Bolton – Priscilla (Bates) Mercurio, 86, formerly of Sudbury, died Thursday Aug 18, 2011 at Emerson Hospital in Concord after a short illness. She was the beloved wife of Joseph Mercurio, who passed away in 2006.
Mrs. Mercurio was a 1942 graduate of Abington High School. On her 18th birthday, she took a train to Connecticut to find a job and a place to live. She was immediately employed in the mailroom at Sikorsky Aircraft, where her artistic talents were soon recognized and she became their first female Technical Illustrator. She attended Cooper Union College in New York City, where she was formerly trained. She then joined Vought Aeronautical in New York City.
After the war, she met her husband, Joseph Mercurio, and moved back to Massachusetts, where they were married in 1948. She worked briefly at Sylvania as a Technical Illustrator until her first child was born in 1950. She then took time out from her career to raise her six children. She was a devoted mother and always put her family first.
Realizing how much she missed drawing, when her youngest child was 10 she started painting landscapes, antique homes and portraits in water color, and sold many of her paintings at county fairs, church fairs and crafts fairs. While she was manning her booth at these fairs, she would always be busy drawing charcoal portraits of children. There would always be a long line of customers waiting for her talented fingers to do their magic.
Mrs. Mercurio was a member of Sudbury Art Association, where she was a past president, and she was an active member of the First Parish of Stow & Acton.
She is survived by her six children, Paul Mercurio and his wife Gretchen Krugler of Auburn, Calif.; Pamela Hanner and her husband Karl of Southborough; James Mercurio of Northborough; Mark Mercurio of Danbury, Conn.; Joe Mercurio of Bolton and his wife Phyllis Mercurio of West Hartford; and Linda Cramer and her husband Andy of Meadow Vista, Calif. She also leaves her grandchildren, Olivia and Emily Mercurio and Carly and Madeline Cramer. She was predeceased by her sister, Sylvia Pandell.
A memorial service will be held Sunday Aug. 28, at 2 p.m., at the First Parish of Stow & Acton, 353 Great Rd., Stow. There are no visiting hours. Burial will be private in the New Town Cemetery in Sudbury.
Memorial contributions may be sent to the Alliance for the Mentally Ill, 11 Robertson Rd., Framingham, MA 01701. Arrangements are under the direction of the Morris Funeral Home of Southborough.
For online condolences, please visit www.morrisfuneralparlor.com.
