Of Lexington, passed away peacefully on February 15, 2024. Born February 14, 1927 in Rochester, NY to Beryl Reeves Clarke and Eric Thacher Clarke, and raised in New York City, she was the youngest of four and played violin in a string quartet with her sisters.

A graduate of Swarthmore College ('49) and Yale Law School ('52), Thacher spent a year abroad in post-war Berlin, where her father worked with the American Friends Service Committee.

She was admitted to the New York Bar in 1956, and, having met at a civil rights conference in North Carolina, in 1961 married the Reverend John Crawford Anderson (d. 1997).

Mother of John Thacher Anderson (b. 1962) and Lucy Reeves Anderson Boyer (b. 1964), over the years Thacher lived in Peekskill, Warwick, Tappan, Piermont, and Grandview-on-Hudson, NY, and summered on Bremen Long Island, Maine. Each home brimmed with books and music, each was a sanctuary for family and friends.

For more than fifty years, Thacher worked tirelessly to protect and advance the rights of others, especially women in the workplace. This phase of her career included multi-decade tenures with both the New York State Division of Human Rights and the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In her "retirement" she was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar (2005), lived in Brookline and Lexington, and volunteered for the American Civil Liberties Union.

Thacher is predeceased by sisters: Josephine Braden, Magdalen Madden, Mary Gray White, and grandson, Eric J. Anderson. She is survived by her children, daughter-in-law Rena A. Sokolow, son-in-law Jason J. Boyer, and grandchildren: Lucas J. P. Anderson and Julia L. Boone; Carl T. Anderson and Esthefany G. Hung; John J. Boyer, Louis I. Sokolow, Nina A. Boyer, and Grace T. Sokolow.

A memorial service will be held at 1pm on Saturday, February 24th at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 15 St. Paul Street, Brookline, MA.

Family will gather and friends are welcome from 4pm to 8pm on Thursday, Feb 22, Friday, Feb 23, and after the memorial service, at the home of Rena Sokolow and John Anderson, 661 Washington St., Brookline.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Thacher's memory may be made to the American Civil Liberties Union, Southern Poverty Law Center, or Heifer International.