An Oyster Bay legend and proud daughter, Dorothy Horton McGee, died on Sunday, Oct. 12 in her Locust Valley apartment from the debilities of advanced age.

From 1982 to the time of her passing, Ms. McGee was the Oyster Bay Town Historian. She was also an assistant historian for the Incorporated Village of Roslyn during the 1950s and a historian for the Incorporated Village of Matinecock. Ms. McGee was widely known throughout the town and Long Island's historical circles and admired at war veterans' gatherings, having deep attachments to the nation's armed services.

Ms. McGee was born at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where her late father, an alumnus of the academy, was a law instructor. She was privately educated during the years her father served in the Philippine Insurrection and World War I. Ms. McGee's father was a retired Army lieutenant colonel and vice president of Bankers Trust. She later studied at the Green Vale School in Glen Head, the Brearley School in New York City and Fermata School in Aiken, SC.

Always greatly interested in American and local history, Ms. McGee was a member of several historical societies, including Town of Oyster Bay Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Town of Oyster Bay Bicentennial Historical Commission (formerly known as the Town of Oyster Bay American Revolution Bicentennial Historical Commission), of which she was a member and chair, as well as the Town of Oyster Bay Historical Commission. Ms. McGee was also an honorary lifetime chairman of the Town of Oyster Bay Historical Society.

In addition, Ms. McGee was a trustee with the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities; a founder and trustee of the Townsend Society of America; a trustee of the Theodore Roosevelt Association; and a member and past vice president of the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society, which she first joined in 1952 and remained involved with until her death. Ms. McGee was an honorary trustee and former director and registrar of Raynham Hall Museum, Inc.; a former member of the Advisory Committee for Raynham Hall, Town of Oyster Bay; vice chair of the Long Island Chapter of the Friends of Sagamore Hill; and director of Sagtikos Manor.

She served as president and chair of the Oyster Bay Historical Society; past charter trustee, organizer and a first chairman with the Association of Municipal Historians of New York State (which in 1999 merged with the County Historians of New York State to form the Association of Public Historians of New York State); a fellow with the Society of American Historians; a member of the Volunteer Bicentennial Committee, National Trust for Historic Preservation in Washington, D.C.; and affiliated with the Nassau County American Revolution Bicentennial Historical Commission.

On a local front, Ms. McGee served as director of Family Service Association of Nassau County, Inc. from 1958 to 1969 and was treasurer of Family Welfare Association of Nassau County, Inc. from 1956 to 1958.

Ms. McGee was a sailing enthusiast from the age of 8, spending summers at her parents' cottage in Cape Cod. She sailed many kinds of boats from dinghies to sailboats of several classes in waters of the Long Island Sound, the New England Atlantic Coast, Nantucket, Nassau and Bermuda as well as the inland lakes of Minnesota and the Adirondacks. A racing skipper in her own right, Ms. McGee raced sailboats of several classes, including Star, Herreshoff Fish, Atlantic, Herreshoff 'S' and Six Metre, the latter with a crew of four and won the 'S' class at Larchmont Race Week and the Season Championship in the 'S' class at the Sewanhaka -Corinthian Yacht Club.

Ms. McGee was the author of such fiction books as Skipper Sandra (1950), and The Boarding School Mystery (1953), which were based on her own sailing and school background. Her historical works included Sally Townsend, Patriot (1952); Famous Signers of the Declaration 1955; Alexander Hamilton: New Yorker 1957); and Herbert Hoover: Engineer, Humanitarian, Statesman (1959, 1965). From 1970 to 1975, Ms. McGee wrote Signposts, a column for the Oyster Bay Guardian and, over the years, prepared and edited the first three editions of Landmarks of Long Island, a guide for the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiques, as well as numerous booklets, articles on sailing and historical items for various periodicals.

During her life, Ms. McGee lectured on historical subjects at schools and for community, historical groups and other groups. She was honored for her writing by the New York State Association of Elementary School Principals in 1959; the New York State Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development in 1961; and the National Society, Children of the American Revolution in 1960. In addition, she was the recipient of the Theodore Roosevelt Association's Founders Medal in 1976 and Bertha R. Rose Award in 1997, and in 1999, the Town of Oyster Bay named Ms. McGee a Woman of Distinction in Government. Ms. McGee was also listed in Who's Who in American Women, Who's Who in the East, Who's Who in the World and Who's Who in Finance and Industry.

A funeral service for Dorothy Horton McGee was held on Friday in Oyster Bay. She was buried with her parents at West Point.

(Editor's Note: Richard Evers contributed to this story.)