Lawyer Wendy Linscott, known for her intelligence and her advocacy, dies of cancer at 74 | Local News

PITTSFIELD — Lawyer Wendy Taylor Linscott, longtime community activist, classmate of Hillary Clinton and member of The Eagle’s advisory board, died Tuesday at Berkshire Medical Center from complications from a rare form of cancer. She was 74 years old.

The death of the resident of Egremont occurred 14 months after the death of her husband and partner, James Lamme III, who also is dead from cancer at the age of 74 in February 2021.

Daughter of the late Roger Linscott, who won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1972 while working for The Berkshire Eagle, Wendy Linscott was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in October, according to her daughter, Taylor Lamme.

“To quote her oncologist, it was a rare and delicate cancer,” said the daughter of Linscott. “They didn’t know where it came from.”

Despite his diagnosis, Linscott continued to work at the law firm Great Barrington Lamme and Linscott it operated together with her late husband. In 1974, James founded the firm Lamme Lamme and become Linscott after the arrival of his wife in 1980.

“She went to the office on Monday morning,” said Taylor Lamme, who lives in San Francisco. “People were shocked to know that she was still in office. »

The Lamme, who lived in Egremont since 1986, would have celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on May 30, 2021. They were a great team, said their daughter.

“It has always surprised people to learn that they were married and that they were working together,” said Lamme. “I think there was something really special in the way they are balanced. They were both passionate about the local causes.

Linscott, who got his law degree from the Law Faculty of the University of Connecticut in 1979, loved the law and took great pleasure in serving the community.

“One of the things she liked about being a lawyer in a small town was to get to know its customers,” said Lamme.

Linscott was also a director of the Board of Natural Resources Berkshire, The Egremont Land Trust and The Berkshire Botanical Garden, and was a member of Egremont Planning Board from 1988 to 1994. She has been instrumental in helping to preserve the reservation End Jug in Egremont developers in mid-1980, an event which led to the formation of the Egremont Land Trust.

Member of the Ethics Committee of the Fairview hospital Linscott had previously served on the boards of directors of community health programs, the reserve of Edith Wharton, the Berkshire Choral Festival, the Southern Berkshire Visiting Nurse Association and Lenox Club.

Graduated with honors from Wellesley College in 1969, Linscott was also a former member of the board of directors of Berkshire Wellesley Club. She was classmates with Hillary Clinton at Wellesley, according to retired educator and nonprofit executive Phil Deely of Stockbridge, who first met Linscott when they were in high school.

“This group of young women met at the White House after the election of Bill Clinton,” said Deely, “and Wendy was one.”

Born in New York on 4 June 1947 Roger and Lucy Ann Richardson Linscott Linscott Goodlatte Wendy Linscott grew up in Richmond and graduated from Pittsfield High School. Deely, who attended the Berkshire School in Sheffield, accompanied Linscott social events when they were teenagers.

Deely said intelligence Linscott has always stood out.

“The characteristic of his was in many ways his intelligence,” he said. “She was really smart. In many ways, she was a feminist decade before that became fashionable.

“What I mean by that is that she was an independent thinker and said what she thought,” Deely said. “I think she inherited a lot of that from her dad, who was the voice of The Berkshire Eagle when I was growing up.

“It was just always impressive.”

Georgeanne Rousseau Lenox and her husband met Linscott and Lamme in 1990 after moving to London in the Berkshires.

“She was great company,” Rousseau said. “She always had a great sense of humor, loved all kinds of music and theater and spent a long, long, long time in a book group. She was always a good read and had books around the house. , her and Jim. They read more than they watch television.

“Wendy was a wonderful woman,” Deely said. “Her death reminds us of everything she brought to life in the Berkshires. She could have worked at a major law firm anywhere in the United States and chosen to live and practice in Berkshire County.

“I think we are all very happy when we have people like that. »

Linscott is survived by her daughter, two sisters, Becky and Vicky Linscott Linscott of Sandisfield, and seven nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her husband and a sister, Judith Linscott.

A memorial service for Wendy Linscott will be scheduled later this year, her daughter said Thursday. Donations in Linscott’s name may be made to the John S. Watson Fund, Construct Inc. and the Elizabeth Freeman Center.