News

By Ron Hayes

    MANALAPAN — Margaret Cole Kotsko, who loved art, books and fashion, died peacefully at her home in the Little Pond complex on May 19, surrounded by her husband of 56 years, Francis R. Kotsko, and other family members.
    Mrs. Kotsko was 81, and had lived in the town since the mid-1990s.
    “She must have at least 500 books here, and it’s a real mix of fiction, biographies, gardening,” said her sister, Dorothy Cole Sharrocks, of Swarthmore, Pa. “She was just one of the most loving, loyal and self-possessed people you could know.”
    Mrs. Kotsko was born on Dec. 10, 1931, in Clairton, Pa., and enjoyed a 42-year career in fashion merchandise retailing. She worked in both buying and administration, traveling the world for Kaufmann’s and Gimbel’s in Pittsburgh and Talbot’s in Hingham, Mass.
    During her retirement years, Mrs. Kotsko was active with the Armory Arts Center in West Palm Beach, where she painted watercolors, and the Manalapan library and book club.
    “She was just a lovely woman whom we enjoyed so much,” recalled Lisa Petersen, the town’s library director. “She was very kind and soft-spoken, always here with her Kindle, and always impeccably dressed. We’ll certainly miss her.”
    Former town commissioner and vice mayor Bill Quigley was a longtime friend and next-door neighbor.
    “She was a wonderful lady, and a class act,” he said. “She and my wife would share and exchange recipes. We enjoyed so much having them as our neighbors and she will be sorely missed.”
    Mrs. Kotsko had been ill since November, but remained active until mid-April.
    Recently, she had urged the book club to read Citizens of London, Lynne Olson’s history of American diplomats in London during World War II.
    The club will read it next, Ms. Petersen said.
    In addition to her husband and sister, she is survived by three nieces, Jane Sharrocks, of Essex, Md., Margaret Egan, of New Milford, Conn., and Katherine Sellmayer, of Catonsville, Md.
    A funeral Mass was celebrated at Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Lantana, with further services and interment at Round Hill Cemetery in Elizabeth, Pa.
    The family asks that gifts in her memory be made to Hospice of Palm Beach County, 5300 East Ave., West Palm Beach, FL 33407.