Margaret Sutton; Author of Mystery Series

Margaret Sutton, the author of the Judy Bolton mystery series, which sold more than 5 million copies, has died. She was 98.

Sutton died Thursday at Lock Haven Hospital.

Born Margaret Beebee in Odin, Pa., Sutton grew up in Coudersport, a small Pennsylvania town near the New York state border. She attended Rochester Business Institute and worked briefly as a secretary before taking work as a printer. She held various printing jobs in Rochester, Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago and New York and joined the printers union in 1923.

She began writing for her husband’s daughter after her marriage to William Sutton in 1924.

Her first Judy Bolton mystery was published in 1932; the last was published in 1967. All the 38 books in the series were based on real events happening in Coudersport and other towns in Pennsylvania’s Potter County, where she grew up.

Sutton and her husband were among the founding members of the South Nassau Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Freeport, N.Y. She also was the church’s first Sunday school teacher.

She combined her two passions to write a religious education curriculum “Letters to Live By,” which was published in Sunday school magazines and taught in churches nationwide.

Sutton taught creative writing in adult education classes and saw many of her students become published authors. She also was a social activist, advocating for fair housing and civil rights.

She moved to Berkeley with her second husband and continued her Sunday school and creative writing teachings.

Sutton is survived by her children Dorothy Wolfe of Napa, Calif.; Marjorie Eckstein of Melville, N.Y.; Eleanor Kratzat of Stanley, Wis.; Thomas Sutton of Uniondale, N.Y., and Linda Stroh of Catonsville, Md. Her older son, Lloyd Sutton, preceded her in death.

A memorial service is planned for July 14 at the South Nassau Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Freeport.