Priscilla Buckley died on March 25, 2012, at age 90, at her family home in Sharon, Connecticut.
Priscilla Buckley died on March 25, 2012, at the age of 90, at 'Great Elm,' the Buckley family estate in Sharon, Connecticut, where she had spent much of her life. Her death was widely reported, including in a detailed obituary by The New York Times, which recalled her decades of service as managing editor of National Review and her role as one of the last surviving members of the magazine's original founding staff.
By the time of her death, she was remembered not only as the sister of the movement's most famous voice, William F. Buckley Jr., but as a formidable editor and writer in her own right—author of the memoir Living It Up with National Review (2005) and co-author, with her sister Priscilla L. Buckley... actually with journalist John Coyne, of a classic newswriting textbook, The Joys of Syntax and Strictly Speaking. Tributes emphasized her graciousness, her exacting editorial standards, and the stabilizing influence she exerted over a magazine staffed by strong personalities.
Her passing marked the end of an era for National Review and for the generation of conservatives who built the postwar American right. She was survived by her extended family and remembered fondly across conservative media and beyond as 'the Grand Dame of the Right.'