Elizabeth M. (Peggie) Coe died July 23 at Jennersville Regional Hospital, Penn Township, Pa., from complications after suffering two strokes during the past year. She was 85.

She was born on Dec. 22, 1921, in Schenectady, N.Y., to Roy C. Muir and Marian Bedford Muir.

At Vassar College, she majored in music and drama, graduating with Phi Beta Kappa honors in 1942.

Singing was an important part of her life. Early in World War II, she sang in a weekly quarter-hour radio program as Beth Muir, aired by WGFM in Schenectady. She was later employed as performing talent and sound effects specialist at WRGB, the General Electric Co.'s first experimental TV station.

She was active in theater and music in Schenectady and later in the Greenwich, Conn., area. With the Schenectady Light Opera Company, she sang the title role in Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience and a lead as Serpolette in The Chimes of Normandy.In Schenectady, she produced and performed in two short operettas written by her friend, Mary Elizabeth Caldwell: Pepito's Golden Flower and Who Wrote Silent Night? Another favorite role was as Lucy in Menotti's two-person opera, The Telephone. Her small performing group in Greenwich presented works like Robin Hood and Hansel and Gretel at schools and nursing homes.

She sang with the Chancel Choir of First Congregational Church, Old Greenwich, Conn., and was also a soprano with the highly regarded Greenwich Choral Society.

Peggie Coe was an active volunteer in Schenectady with Junior League projects and in Greenwich as music committee chairman of the Greenwich Library. She also served as tutor for English as a second language students in Greenwich and later she worked in the Town of Greenwich AIDS education office.

Among her favorite sports were tennis, bowling, and downhill skiing. The Coe family first skied on Vermont slopes, but later skied at Snowmass Village, Colo. After the family moved to Greenwich, she joined her husband in racing and cruising sailboats. Their entry won the Luders 16 National Championship, sailed at Greenwich in 1968. In 40-Class sloops, she was a member of the winning crew for the 1987 Storm Trysail Club Block Island Race Week. They enjoyed summers and sailing with friends and family at their home in Vineyard Haven for nearly 20 years.

Survivors include her husband of 63 years, Jerome T. Coe of West Grove, Pa.; a daughter, Wendy Coe Lott, and her husband, Jeffrey B. Lott, of Yorklyn, Del.; a son, Jerome Muir Coe, and his wife, Marianne Kah, of Houston, Tex.; and two grandsons, Joseph Coe Lott of New York city and Michael Coe Lott of Yorklyn, Del.

She was preceded in death by a son, Roy Muir Coe.

A memorial service will be conducted at First Congregational Church, Old Greenwich, Conn., on Friday, August 3, at 11 a.m. Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Heifer International, P.O. Box 8058, Little Rock, AK 72203-8058, or by phone to 888-548-6437.