MARGERY ELISCU PORTLAND, Maine...

MARGERY ELISCU

PORTLAND, Maine -- Margery Eliscu, a longtime newspaper columnist who set gentle humor in everyday life, died Thursday after a drawn out battle with cancer, her family said. She was 81

Mr Eliscu wrote her "Coffee Break" array of less front than depth for the Maine Sunday Telegram for more than 23 years. She continued to write during her illness, with family members bringing a laptop computer to her bedside or sometimes taking dictation. Her last row appeared July 9.

Mr Eliscu was born in fresh York City. She began writing professionally in the 1950 when she wrote a national magazine article about natural childbirth. While raising her four children upon Long Island, New York, she began writing for a weekly newspaper there.

In 1970 Mr Eliscu and her husband mov to a farmhouse in Poland, north of Portland.

Mr Eliscu was recognized by means of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists in 1995 when she placed third in the humor category for newspapers with through 100,000 circulation. One of Mr Eliscu's files that most impressed judges was "how to use a public bathroom without touching any germy surface."

Copyright CHICAGO SUN-TIMES 2006

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