Sylvia Margaret (Maggie) Priestley the widow of Leslie Priestley died on 23 Sept 1997 aged 91.

The youngest of six children of Samuel and Annie Bailey, she was born in Rushden on the 15th January 1906 in King's Road. The family moved into a then new house in Portland Road, Rushden, where she lived for 83 years, when failing health necessitated her move to 'The Beeches' Residential Home, Higham Road.

After qualifying as a teacher, she taught at the Newton Road Infant School where she was known as 'Miss Sylvia' (to avoid confusion with another 'Miss Bailey') until her marriage to Arthur Leslie Priestley, in 1932.

During her life she had been an active member of both the St Mary's Church Mothers Union and the Rushden Townswomens' Gui1d.

Her husband, Les, died in 1990 and their only son, David, born in 1935, died, following a motoring accident, in 1958.