Anne Brewster Brittain Was Charity Organizer

Anne Brewster Brittain, a member of a prominent Philadelphia family and a longtime Edgartown summer resident, died of complications of emphysema on Dec. 7 at the age of 81.

Mrs. Brittain, a graduate of Springside School, Chestnut Hill, followed in the footsteps of her parents, involving herself, throughout her life, in various charitable and civic activities, including serving as co-chairman of the Philadelphia Antique Show benefiting the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania; cochairman of the Academy Ball benefiting the Academy of Music; and as a cofounder of the Community Clothes Charity, which annually raises money through the sale of donated women's apparel for the benefit of local institutions, including hospitals, child care facilities and similar organizations. The recipients are selected by the charity's board of directors, of which Mrs. Brittain remained a member until shortly before her death.

Her father, C. Barton Brewster, at the time of his death in 1958, had recently retired as president of the Philadelphia Free Library. Her mother, Ella Read Brewster, for a number of years had been an active member of the Women's Committee of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, as was Mrs. Brittain. Mrs. Brittain also had been a member of The Acorn Club of Philadelphia and at one point, chairman of its admissions committee.

Survivors include five children: four daughters, Hope, Ellen, Anne (Tina) and Barbara Bromley by her former marriage to John Bromley, and one son, John Brittain Jr., by her marriage in 1957 to John S. Brittain.

Interment, attended by family only, was at a graveside service at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Whitemarsh, Pa.