Josephine Taggart Hudson

JOSEPHINE TAGGART HUDSON

93, died Monday, September 17 at her home in Watertown, New York.

Mrs. Hudson was born July 7, 1914 in Watertown, the second of three daughters of Byron Brown Taggart, Jr. and

Josephine Clapp Taggart and spent her early days in Watertown, Greenwich, Connecticut and Augusta, Georgia.

Her family was prominent in the papermaking industry in New York State and as farmers were among the first settlers of Jefferson County. Her grandfather, Byron B. Taggart, Sr. was founder of Taggart Brothers Paper Co. which led the industry in the manufacture of paper bags, and was twice mayor of Watertown.

Her father was president of Taggart Brothers and later chairman of the board of

Taggart Corp. as well as a founder of Northern New York Trust Co. and a director of Standard Publishing Co., which at one time published the Watertown Daily Standard.

A 1932 graduate of Rosemary Hall in Greenwich and a 1936 graduate of Bryn Mawr College, she traveled extensively. She studied fine arts at the

Courtauld Institute of Art in London, England and later was an adjunct professor of history of art at American University in Washington, DC.

A competitive athlete and bridge player, she played on a championship varsity field hockey team at Bryn Mawr, rode horseback competitively as a young girl in Augusta and played championship golf in Watertown and at the State level. Throughout her life she was a formidable backgammon player and was a life master at duplicate bridge. She was devoted to her family summer cottage at Henderson Harbor, New York on the shore of Lake Ontario.

Her first marriage, in 1936, was to Alfred Stapley Edwards, of Sydney, NSW, Managing

Director of Johnson & Johnson Australia. Mr. Edwards died in 1945.

Her second marriage, in 1950 to Charles Keating Rice, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Tax Division of the

Department of Justice during the Eisenhower administration, ended in divorce.

Her third marriage, in 1967, was to Dr. Richard Brooke Titus Roberts, a noted biophysicist at the Carnegie Institute in Washington, DC. Dr. Roberts died in 1980.

Her fourth marriage, in 1991, was to retired New York State Supreme Court Judge Henry A. Hudson, also a former mayor of Watertown. Mr. Hudson died in 1995.

Mrs. Hudson was a significant supporter of philanthropic and community service causes in Northern New York and at the time of her death she was a

parishioner of Trinity Episcopal Church, Watertown.

Surviving are her older sister, Florence Taggart Adams, New Canaan, Connecticut; two sons, Byron Taggart Edwards, Glen Gardner, New Jersey; Marcus Charles Rice, MD, Norfolk,

Virginia; her daughter, Josephine Edwards Bullard, of Greenwich, Connecticut; ten grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Her younger sister, Frances Taggart Babcock, formerly of Belmont, Massachusetts, died April 17.

Funeral services were held on September 20 at Trinity Episcopal Church, Watertown.

Mrs. Hudson was interred at

Brookside Cemetery, Watertown where all of her husbands are also interred. Contributions in her memory may be sent to Trinity Episcopal Church, 227 Sherman Street, Watertown, NY 13601.