Sandra P. Watson, a librarian at the Bridgehampton School who finished her career in the financial department of the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton in the early 2000s, died on Nov. 2 of heart failure at the Davis Community Health Care Center in Wilmington, N.C. She was 81 and had been in declining health for the past three years.
Mrs. Watson worked as a librarian in a number of school systems, the last being Bridgehampton.
A longtime resident of the South Fork, she was born in Southampton on April 30, 1940, to Roy G. Peterson and the former Edna Bennett. She grew up in the village and graduated from Southampton High School in 1958, then went on to the State University at Albany, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1963.
She and David A. Watson, who was from Bridgehampton, were married on Aug. 24, 1963, and moved to Albany that fall so that Mrs. Watson could study for an M.A. in library sciences at her alma mater, which she earned the following year. A move to Levittown was followed by a move to Rochester after her husband got a job at Kodak. The couple returned to Bridgehampton to live briefly on his parents’ property and then settled in Water Mill.
Their family grew by one in the early 1970s when they adopted their son, Daron.
Mrs. Watson was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Southampton, where she enjoyed being part of the church choir and the handbell choir.
In addition to her husband and son, who lives in Hampstead, N.C., Mrs. Watson is survived by a grandson, Pax Watson. Her brothers, Ronald and David Peterson, died before her.
A memorial service will be planned in the spring.
