Anne Clayton Nesbitt, age 97, passed away peacefully on Wednesday, July 18, 2018 at home in Pennington, NJ. She was born on December 10, 1920 to Harriet G. and Nelson D. Clayton in Concordville, PA. She was predeceased by her husband of sixty-five years, Marshall Roberts Nesbitt. She is survived by her children, Barbara Nesbitt Hathaway (Alden) and Carolyn Nesbitt DiMuzio (Tom) and grandchildren, Alexander Nesbitt May (Karin), Megan Anne Del Collo (Dan), Hillary Catharine May, Katelyn DiMuzio Jenkins (Stephen), and Thomas Joseph DiMuzio and nine great grandchildren.
Anne graduated Valedictorian from West Chester (PA) High School and went on to attend the University of Delaware, where she was a devoted alumna receiving the Outstanding Alumni Award in 1987. After graduating from U of D, Anne worked for the National Broiler Council, a trade association for the chicken industry and developed the National Chicken Cooking Contest in all fifty states, a contest that ran for over twenty years. In 1979, she went to work for Bi-State Publishing that published The Leader and The Peninsula Pacemaker. She and Marshall later purchased The Peninsula Pacemaker in 1980 and she became the publisher and editor of the magazine. In 1982, she traveled to Asia to talk to school administrators, farmers, and extension agents about the best ways to raise and prepare chicken. She continued to write a weekly column for The Leader (now The Star). Joining the Seaford Historical Society in 1972, Anne was an officer for many years and recently named a lifetime honorary trustee. Anne was known for serving her community and spent many hours volunteering and helping to communicate the message behind the organizations she supported. Anne was a 45-year member of AAUW holding many offices on a local and state level. She volunteered for Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay Council and was a former president of the Delaware Home Economics Association. She served on the Boards of Seaford Community Concerts, the Delaware Symphony Association and the Seaford District Library. Additionally, she was a Vestry member of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church (Seaford, DE). She received the Athena Award for Professional Achievement and Community Service in recognition of her countless hours of volunteer work within the communities she lived. As a proud and dedicated member of the Clayton family, Anne enjoyed researching her family lineage and organizing the annual family reunions on her family’s farm, now known as Clayton Park (Glen Mills, PA). In recent years, she relocated to Pennington, NJ to be closer to family.
A memorial service will be held at St. John’s Methodist Church in Seaford, Delaware on Sunday, September 9, 2018 at 2pm. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in her honor to the Seaford Historical Society, 203 High Street, Seaford DE 19973 or Holy Redeemer Hospice, 121 Jersey Street, Trenton, NJ 08611.
