Nancy Scott McLaughlin, age 80, passed away Saturday, March 30, 2019 at home in Lexington, Virginia in the loving presence of family, after a long illness.
Nancy was born in Bloomington, Illinois on February 25, 1939, the youngest daughter of William and Geraldine Scott.
She left home after high school, attended college, then moved to New York City, where she worked as a switchboard operator before marrying and starting a family.
After settling in San Diego, California, she began a career as a journalist and author, rising from proofreader to travel writer to section editor for the San Diego Union and writing "The Generals" (Knopf, 1988), a well-reviewed, single-volume dual biography of generals Lee and Grant, that went into multiple printings. It was while researching this book that Nancy fell in love with the Shenandoah Valley.
She moved to Lexington in 1994 and spent 25 years developing a close circle of extraordinary friends, designing and creating beautiful homes, and pursuing a passionate attachment to gardening and landscape architecture.
She lost her beloved husband, William Lowndes McLaughlin, in 2005 and will rest beside him in Stonewall Jackson Cemetery.
She is preceded in death by her parents, her brother, William Scott, and sister Barbara Price.
She is survived by her brother, Robert Scott; two sons of her first marriage, Fritz Anderson of San Diego, California, and Dore Kiesselbach of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and their wives, Brenda Anderson and Karin Ciano, and Fritz's sons, Zachary and Nathan.
After a private family graveside service, a gathering in remembrance of Nancy's uniquely beautiful life will be held in the manner of Friends (Quakers) at the Maury River Friends Meetinghouse, 34 Waterloo Drive, Lexington, at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 27. All are welcome.
The family requests donations in lieu of flowers may be made in Nancy's memory to the Boxerwood Nature Center & Woodland Garden (963 Ross Road, Lexington, VA 24450), a local nonprofit organization devoted to inspiring people of all ages to become environmentally responsible stewards of the Earth.
