Nancy Silcox

Anne Warrin Branham (Nancy) Silcox died peacefully in her sleep on Thursday, May 26, 2011. She was born on May 21, 1924, the daughter of Captain Hugh McCullogh Branham (USN) and Marthe de Raismes Warrin and the sister of Virginia Holt (Dinny) Branham Snare, Mary Gwyn (Patsy) Branham Atwater, Margaret Jocelyn (Peggy) Branham VanderVoort, and Second Lieutenant Hugh Marshall (Bill) Branham (USAAF). She is survived by her five children, Martha Warrin Silcox Hankins, John Horton Silcox III, Hugh Branham Silcox, Barbara Holt Silcox, and Grace Gwyn Silcox Myer and by her eight grandchildren, Matthew Kenneth Hankins, Megan Elizabeth Hankins Jackson, John Horton Silcox IV, Katherine Wallace Silcox Warrington, James Price Silcox, Rachel Elizabeth Silcox, Jessica Sadie Myer, and Peter Saxe Robert Myer and four great-grandchildren, Martha June Hankins, Virginia Grace Hankins, Sadie Florence Jackson, and Oliver Anders Jackson. John Horton (Jay) Silcox, Jr., Nancy’s husband of fifty-four years, died in 1999. Nancy Branham arrived, with her family, in Chestertown in 1936, at the age of twelve, after a childhood in numerous east-coast seaports, reflecting her father’s career as a naval officer. The fact that Nancy came to Kent County so late in life meant that she would never be a “local girl.” However, few residents of Kent County were more local. Nancy was educated at Riggs-O-Marlow in Quaker Neck. She married Jay Silcox of Still Pond in 1944 and raised their five children near Kennedyville. For the first years of her marriage, Nancy stayed close to home, tending to her family, and working hard in her beautiful gardens of iris, peonies, and other perennials. She was an active member of the Greenfingers Garden Club for many years. She was also active in the PTA and was (very briefly) a Cub-Scout den mother. Having begun knitting gloves for horseback-riding friends and socks for soldiers during the Second World War, Nancy was seldom seen throughout her life without her yarn and needles, outfitting generations with hand-knit gloves. Some time in the 1970s, though, she began her more-than-thirty-year career in real estate and never looked back. Nancy worked as a sales agent for a number of local realty concerns and retired from Wyble Enterprises at the age of eighty-five in 2009. Nancy found a calling in real-estate sales, not so much because she enjoyed the minutia of the settlement table, but because she reveled in meeting (and getting to know) people. Some of her encounters were fleeting; it seems many, though, resulted in life-long friendships. Nancy would laugh at being called an “institution” and would chafe at being referred to as a “fixture” but she was both. Even after retirement (and with less and less mobility), she could be found with some regularity “holding court” at Brooks Tavern and was a consistent presence at weekly First Friday events on High Street. Hers was a powerful personality, and she retained a sharp wit (and opinions to match) to the end. Nancy Silcox loved her family and friends, but she had a life-long love affair with her adopted Kent County. Nancy made one final gift to her community by donating her body to the Maryland State Anatomy Board. The family will host a celebration of Nancy’s life from 1 to 4PM, July 31, at the farm. They have suggested contributions be made, in her memory and honor, to Homeports (http://homeports.org/), the Kent-Queen Anne’s Rescue Squad (http://kentrescuesquad.com/), or the Kennedyville Volunteer Fire Company (11993 Kennedyville Road, Kennedyville, MD 21645).

Nancy Silcox

May 21, 1924 - May 26, 2011