SALEMBIER--Anita Higgins (formerly Anita van Lennep Higgins) died on Thursday at her home in Locust Valley, New York. She was 96. The cause was pneumonia, her family said. Mrs. Salembier was born in Manhattan on December 10, 1921 and was a descendant of Governor Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut. She attended the Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and Miss Hewitt's School in New York City. She was presented at the St. Regis Hotel on January 2, 1941. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. During WWII she worked at the Office of Strategic Services (predecessor to the CIA) translating German and French telegrams. Anita was president of the North Country Garden Club of Long Island and the Garden Club of East Hampton. She also served as a judge for the Garden Club of America. She is remembered by her family and friends for her humor, quick wit, and energy. In 1947 she married Charles Coe Townsend Jr. In 1973 she married Harold P. Salembier; they lived in Oyster Bay and East Hampton, NY. She was predeceased by her son Benjamin Hewitt Townsend. She is survived by four children: Charles C. Townsend 3d, of Barrington, Rhode Island, Frederic Townsend, of Lake Bluff, Illinois, James B. Townsend, of Oyster Bay, Long Island, and Claire Townsend Bacher, of Santa Cruz, California, and thirteen grandchildren. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, February 10 at 11:00 at St. John's Church, 1670 Route 25A, in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. Donations may be made in her honor to St. John's Church, Cold Spring Harbor.