Marjorie Prescott, 62; artist crafted little treasures of life

Marjorie (Manning) Prescott, a professional artist in many media, had always believed in the organ donor program. When her own kidneys failed, she realized its importance even more.

Mrs. Prescott, 62, died Dec. 8 in her Marshfield home of a heart attack after battling kidney disease for seven years while waiting for an organ donor. Her family believes she was near the top of the transplant list when she died.

Mrs. Prescott had focused mostly on sculpture since 1964, but she also painted, made pottery and silver jewelry, and did beadwork. She was generous with her work and had a ''marvelous sense of using her art for the community, often donating a lovely piece of art for a benefit," a friend, Mary Morrissey Sullivan of Scituate, said.

Among Mrs. Prescott's works were the tiny charms, or ''wearable sculptures," that she created in silver and gold. They were commissioned by and are sold at institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution and the John F. Kennedy Library. Her work was exhibited by the Copley Society of Boston and local galleries.

In those miniatures she captured ''an amazing likeness and spirit" of real people, said her son, Jonathan James Prescott-Roy of Bedford.

Mrs. Prescott was born in Wellesley to Robert and Thelma (Cassidy) Manning. The family moved to Castleton, Vt., and Mrs. Prescott graduated from Rutland (Vt.) High School in 1960.

She attended Castleton College, and in the summer of 1962 enrolled at the Rhode Island School of Design. She left in her junior year to be married. While her husband, Robert, was studying for a year at Dartmouth College, Mrs. Prescott was active with arts and crafts groups in New Hampshire. When her husband found work in Foxborough, Mrs. Prescott enrolled at Wheaton College in Norton, where she studied sculpture and art history and graduated magna cum laude in 1977.

An abstract that won Mrs. Prescott a prize at Wheaton was apparently so good it was stolen.

Mrs. Prescott's home was her studio. Robert Prescott said he has a lasting image of her with her magnifying visor on her head, sitting in a chair with her cat on her lap, molding one of her miniature sculptures in wax before it was cast in gold, silver, or pewter.

He recalled how painstaking it was for her to, for instance, fashion a half-inch-tall replica of John F. Kennedy's rocking chair with all its authentic rungs. It even rocked.

Mrs. Prescott, a former president of the North River Arts Society, stayed with her art as long as she could during her illness, scheduling her dialysis treatments at night at home so as not to interfere with her daily life. ''She fought it tooth and nail," her son said. ''She looked to her life and tried to understand how her body could fight it. She lived by what she learned. She dedicated her whole time to beating it."

Her mind was always alive with ideas, and her hands always busy, friends said. ''Marj never lost her joie de vivre," said Susan Ross of Alexandria, Va., Mrs. Prescott's roommate at Rhode Island School of Design. ''She was loving and warm and very spirited, and she was an inspiration to others even before her illness."

Another friend, Kathleen Willett of Harwichport, is one of five women, including Mrs. Prescott, who traditionally made two visits to Harpswell, Maine, a year, their last in July. Mrs. Prescott was determined not to miss any of them. ''Marj packed up all her dialysis equipment and came along. She was very brave," Willett said.

In addition to her husband and son, Mrs. Prescott leaves her mother, Thelma, of Duxbury; another son, Robert of Halifax, Nova Scotia; and a grandson.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. today in First Parish Unitarian Church in Norwell. One of Mrs. Prescott's sculptures, ''Silvie," a seated woman with a bird perched on her hand, will be displayed. Burial will be private.

According to Mrs. Prescott's wishes, her tissue was donated after her death ''to save and improve the lives of others," her husband said.