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James D. Mitchell
Was Former Airport Manager
James D. Mitchell of Marstons Mills, a former resident of Edgartown and manager of the Martha's Vineyard Airport for seven years, died on August 16 at the Cape Cod Hospital after a brief illness. He was 62.
Born in Hemstedt, N.Y., Mr. Mitchell was raised in St. George, Canada and Lubec, Me. He enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1956 and served as an air traffic controller at various air bases in Florida, Massachusetts and Turkey, retiring with the rank of Tech Sergeant in 1976. He was awarded the Air Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster.
Mr. Mitchell was manager of the Martha's Vineyard Airport from 1983 to 1989; he lived in Edgartown until 1996, when he moved to Marstons Mills. His wife, Donniss M. Mitchell, died in September of 1997.
Mr. Mitchell enjoyed HAM radio operation with the key signal K C 1 T 1, and was a private pilot. He was a captain in the Massachusetts Civil Air Patrol and a member of the Falmouth Radio Club.
Mr. Mitchell is survived by three sons, Tech Sgt. (Ret) Scott Mitchell, USAF, of Kings Mountain, N.C., Christopher Mitchell of Mashpee and Jeffrey Mitchell of Falmouth. He was the son in law of Hazel Blocker of Panama City, Fla.
Graveside services were held on Monday, August 20, at 2:30 p.m. at the Massachusetts National cemetery in Bourne. The family received visitors in the Doane, Beal & Ames Funeral Home in Hyannis on Sunday from 6 to 9 p.m.
Jean L. Silva, 90
Was Devoted Scout Leader
Jean L. Silva, 90, of Vineyard Haven died on Sept. 24, 2001 at Kindred Hospital, Brighton following a lengthy illness. She was the wife of the late Arthur T. Silva who died in 1993.
Born in Oak Bluffs on May 24, 1911, Jean was the daughter of the late Sheriff David J. and Rachel Nickerson McBride.
Jean was graduated from Oak Bluffs High School in a class of 11 girls in 1929 and then attended Bryant Stratton Business School, Boston.
In 1941, Jean and her late husband, Arthur, were appointed keepers of the Edgartown Jail and lived there with their three children until late 1943.
While in Edgartown she was a member of the Edgartown Mothers Club and was affiliated with the American Red Cross, assisting with making bandages for the war effort.
When the family moved to Vineyard Haven, she was associated with Arthur, who had become a partner and longtime friend of Clifford Luce, in operating the Artcliff Diner in Vineyard Haven.
Jean first became interested in Girl Scouts in the 1920s under the leadership of Irene Landers, a school nurse. She achieved first class scout, the highest rank at that time. She became involved again in the early 1940s by joining the Martha's Vineyard Girl Scout Council as a registrar and leader of her youngest daughter Nancy's Girl Scout Troop.
Jean was a leader for 15 years, leading all age levels including the one and only Mariner Troop on the Island.
When the Vineyard Council voted to search for a campsite, she served on the search committee and camp Wampanoag was established in Chilmark. She served for more than 20 years on the campsite committee.
In 1962 when the local council merged with Plymouth Bay Girl Scout Council she became a member of the board of directors as district chairman and also continued as neighborhood chairman for Vineyard Haven.
Jean has received several awards including Girl Scouting's two most prestigious adult awards the Thanks Badge and the Outstanding Adult Award. She received her 50-year pin in 1991.
She retired as president of the local service unit on Jan. 1, 1993 after serving six years, but was still a member serving in many ways.
Jean has been an active member of Grace Church in Vineyard Haven since her years as a young girl in the choir. She has served the church as a Sunday school teacher, member of the vestry and member of the St. James Altar Guild.
She was a member of the Martha's Vineyard Zonta Club for 35 years, serving as president and in various other offices. She was an original member of the Tisbury Museum, serving as vice-president until it became part of the Dukes County Historical Society. She served in the Red Cross as chairman of the local blood bank. She was a member of the New England Genealogy Society, Dukes County Historical Society, the Martha's Vineyard Antiques Club and the Martha's Vineyard Friends of Scouting. She was gracious and a giving humanitarian, always caring about others and the needs of her community.
In 1987, Mrs. Silva received the Award for Creative Living from the Ruth Bogan Memorial Fund. In their letter of nomination for that award, Joan Didato and Nancy C. Morris wrote: "As a humanitarian, she is the quiet, efficient and modest friend who, seeing your need, is the first to your door with assistance, be it a cooked meal or a shoulder to lean on. Jean is still serving and caring about young people and the needs of her community creatively, and is most deserving of this award."
She is survived by her son, Ronald, and his wife, Susan Silva of West Tisbury; her daughter, Patricia, and her husband, Robert Wittig of West Tisbury; four grandchildren, Timothy Silva of Leominster, Michael Silva of San Francisco, Calif., Daniel Silva of Virginia Beach, Va., and Andrea Silva of Providence, R.I., and one great-grandchild, Chapin Silva of Virginia Beach, Va. She was predeceased by her daughter, Nancy Silva Conroy. A memorial service will be held at a later date at a time to be announced. Private interment will be held in the family lot at the Oak Grove cemetery, Tisbury.
Memorial donations may be made to the charity of one's choice. Arrangements are by the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home, in Oak Bluffs.
Edmund L. Kelley
Was Former Island Resident
Edmund L. Kelley, 80, died on August 6. Born in New Bedford, he moved as a youth with his family to Martha's Vineyard, where he lived through young adulthood. After serving in the US Army Air Corps during World War II, he and his wife relocated to the Pacific Northwest, and lived the past 45 years in the Seattle area.
His life was celebrated by his family at a private gathering on a sunny Puget Sound beach. Memories were shared of his love for camping, fishing and hunting; his carpentry skills; his intelligent humor; his thoughtfulness and kindness to others, and his always willing helping hands. An online memorial book is available to sign at www.evergreen-washelli.com.
Edmund was devoted to his wife, Johnnie Sue, and admired by his children, Susanna Gilbert of Carnation, Wash., Allen Kelley of Yuma, Ariz., Nora Strand of Longview, Wash., and Mary Johnson of Santa Fe, N.Mex. He treasured his seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his brother, Robert Kelley of Edgartown, and his sister, Louise Garand of Hancock, N.H.
Edmund supported many worthy organizations. Memorials may be made to the American Heart Association or any organization of choice -- it surely would have been his also. Arrangements are by Evergreen-Washelli Funeral Home, Seattle.
Albert K. Sylvia Jr.
Albert K. Sylvia Jr., 80, of Edgartown, husband of Yvonne (Berube) Sylvia and retired fire chief of Edgartown, died Monday evening, June 18, 2001, at home. He was born in 1921, son of Capt. Albert K. and Hanola (Sparrow) Sylvia. Upon the early death of his mother, he and his twin brother, Alvin, were raised by their grandparents, Capt. Manuel and Minnie (Enos) Sylvia. He was graduated from Edgartown High School, where he won awards for track, basketball and football. He followed his father in the yachting business until World War II. He enlisted as a seaman in November of 1942 and was honorably discharged as boatswain's mate first class in October, 1945.
Upon completion of his military duty, he joined his brother-in-law, Donald Berube, in the electrical business. When he received his master's electrician's license, he formed his own business and retired in 1990.
He joined the Edgartown fire department in October of 1945 and worked his way up the ranks. He was named fire chief in 1978 and retired at the end of 1988. He was also the town oil burner inspector and continued after his retirement as fire chief until 1997. His other positions and offices held are the following: wiring inspector from 1988 to 1997, member and past adjutant of the American Legion Post #186, past president of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, past president of the Holy Name Society, member of the Knights of Columbus, president of the St. Elizabeth's Church Parish Council, honorary trustee of the Dukes County Savings Bank, devoted member of St. Elizabeth's Church Parish and recipient of the Marian Medal in 1970 in recogition of distinguished service to St. Elizabeth's Church.
Albert was a kind and compassionate man devoted to his family, church, fire department and town. He leaves his wife of 58 years, Yvonne; three sons, Edmund and his wife, Ellen, of Topsham, Me., Brian and his fiancÈe, Joanne of Edgartown and Kevin and his wife, Cindy of Oak Bluffs; two daughters, Hanola and her husband, Marvin Burnham, of Weld, Me., and Beth and her husband, Tom Mello, of Vineyard Haven. Also surviving him are his grandchildren, Eric Steigelman and his wife, Amy, of Ashburnham; Christopher Steigelman and his wife, Kim, of Edgartown; Kimberly and her husband, Gilbert Miller, of Wilton, Me.; Leigh, Ariel and Craig Sylvia of Oak Bluffs, Jacob and Jeffrey Sylvia of Edgartown, and Adam, Ryan, Jason and Angela Mello of Vineyard Haven. His great-grandchildren are Tyler, Bryan and Gage Steigelman; Kara and Brandon Steigelman, and Noah and Ian Miller. He also leaves many nieces, nephews and cousins, also his devoted childhood friend, Fred B. Morgan, as well as his devoted friends.
His funeral mass was celebrated yesterday, June 21, in St. Elizabeth's Church; interment followed in the Old Westside cemetery. Donations may be made in his memory to St. Elizabeth's Church, the Edgartown Fireman's Association or to Hospice of Martha's Vineyard. Arrangements were by the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home, Edgartown in Oak Bluffs.
Louise Tate King was Chef, Restaurateur;
She Lived Life with Flair and Good Humor
Louise Tate King, epicure, chef and restaurateur whose cuisine was an Island institution for nearly 40 years, died of cancer on Thursday, Dec. 14 at the Henrietta Brewer House in Vineyard Haven. Mrs. King was 87.
She was born in Canada and grew up in Tennessee and Pennsylvania. She first came to the Vineyard as a summer resident in 1941, and it was here, 10 years later, that her career began. She was the proprietor, in turn, of fashionable restaurants in Chilmark, North Tisbury and Edgartown, and finally of a North Tisbury catering business. She was the co-author, with Jean Stewart Wexler of North Tisbury, of The Martha's Vineyard Cookbook, which was published in 1971 and twice reissued in paperback.
To her cooking she brought the creativity and flair characteristic of the great chefs. She was trained at the Cordon Bleu School of Cuisine in Paris and said late in her life: "I'm a classicist. I say the French cuisine is the greatest in the world."
Mrs. King was born in Niagara Falls, Canada, on Oct. 28, 1913. Her parents, Allen and Pearl Sachs Tate, were from England. Her father was a salesman in a shoe store in Niagara Falls; it was he, Mrs. King always said, who taught her to cook. In 1920 the family moved to Nashville, Tenn., to Philadelphia in 1927 and to Reading, Pa., in 1930. Louise and her younger sister attended public schools, where Louise excelled in Latin. She was an outgoing and vivacious girl, popular among her schoolmates and teachers.
For all her culture and sophistication, Mrs. King never went to college. Her first job was in the accounting department of Luden's, the cough drop maker, in Reading. In 1932 she married
one Mitchell Atwater; the marriage lasted less than a year and Mr. Atwater left hardly a trace in the family memory. Mrs. King moved to New York city in 1934 and went to work as a secretary at the United States Leather Company. She was married
in 1939 to Lewis King of Forest Hills, N.Y., an executive with the Loft Candy company. Mr. King had been summering on Martha's Vineyard since he was a boy, and in 1941 he brought his bride to the Island. The Kings came back every summer through the 1940s, renting a place on the North Shore in Chilmark.
In 1951 the couple purchased an abandoned and decaying farmhouse on a hill above the North Road in Chilmark. Renovations took a year, and in 1952 the Kings opened the Blueberry Hill Inn. Louise Tate King, 39, had found her calling.
The couple was divorced in 1961, and Mrs. King immediately struck out on her own. She bought the old Ed Lee Luce house at the bend in the State Road in North Tisbury, added a wing and opened a summer restaurant. Louise Tate King's "Food With A French Provincial Flavor" was the Vineyard's first French restaurant.
It quickly attracted an admiring clientele, including some of the Island's summer celebrities of the day, such as Leonard Bernstein and Thomas Hart Benton. Mrs. King, who lived in the house as well, was fond of greeting her patrons and engaging them in discussions of the menu and of food in general. She knew most of them by name.
In 1967 she moved her business to Edgartown, to the Captain Robert Jackson house on Main street. Louise Tate King's Cuisine Français was an instant success. Thornton Wilder came to dine there. So did Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon. In 1970 Gentlemen's Quarterly magazine gave Louise Tate King's its Distinguished Dining Award for "distinguished achievement in the culinary arts, for high standards of gracious service and for inviting decor and atmosphere." Years later Mrs. King put her restaurant's virtues in a nutshell: "Just fine food exquisitely served."
The Martha's Vineyard Cookbook was published initially by Harper & Row and went to seven printings. "This is no ordinary cookbook," wrote a reviewer in The Christian Science Monitor. "It could easily pass for the story of one of the most beautiful and unspoiled spots along the Atlantic Coast. It could qualify as a book on New England foods. And it could also stand alone as a cookbook on seafood."
It was redolent of the Island. There were recipes for windfall applesauce and clam stifle, for Joseph Chase Allen's cornbread, Mary Alley's banana bread, Priscilla Hancock's fudge and John Pachico's herring roe bake. The book was republished in paperback in 1993 by the Globe Pequot Press. A third edition, with some 30 new recipes, was released by Globe Pequot last year.
Mrs. King sold her Edgartown restaurant in 1974 and opened a catering business, Island Epicure, working out of her home in North Tisbury. The business thrived for many years. Mrs. King retired by degrees and in 1989 moved to a gingerbread cottage on Central avenue in Oak Bluffs, where she continued to cook for the sheer pleasure it gave her.
Mrs. King's creativity extended beyond the kitchen. She was a self-taught and capable classical pianist and watercolorist and expert gardener. She loved jazz and the great Broadway musicals of the 1940s and 1950s, and in her younger days she loved to dance. Her daughter, Hillary King Flye, remembers her mother on the dance floor, a vibrant and stylish woman with an unmistakable zest for melody and movement and for life itself. Mrs. King traveled extensively in Europe and the Caribbean. She often wintered in Florida, and for several winters she ran a restaurant on St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. She did volunteer work for the Martha's Vineyard Historical Commission and for the Community Solar Greenhouse in Oak Bluffs. She had a theatrical bent and worked on productions of Harvey and Blithe Spirit at the Martha's Vineyard Little Theater.
Mrs. King had a special admiration for the French chef Jacques Pepin, who cooked for Charles DeGaulle and wrote La Method and La Technique. Pepin's books, she said, would enable any neophyte to become an able professional chef. "It's an attitude," she said. "I always had the best, the freshest. And a limited menu allows you to concentrate."
Mrs. King is survived by her daughter; by her sister, Sylvia Tate Horan of Washington Grove, Md.; and by two granddaughters, Jennifer Trilby Marlin of Portland, Ore., and Anna-Louise Fischbach of Mill Valley, Calif. A funeral service will be held at Grace Church in Vineyard Haven at 10 a.m. on Dec. 30. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations in Mrs. King's name be made to the MSPCA in Edgartown.
Marguerie Repetto, 31
Lived Briefly on Vineyard
Marguerite Repetto, 31, a resident of East Falmouth, died Tuesday, June 12 at the Cape Cod Hospital after an automobile accident in Marstons Mills.
Miss Repetto was born and raised in Somerville and was a graduate of Somerville High School and of Burdette Business School in Boston. She had lived all her life in Somerville until moving to Vineyard Haven in 1998. She then moved to East Falmouth in December of 2000. While living on the Vineyard, she worked as a secretary for The Trustees of Reservations.
Miss Repetto is survived by her mother, Marguerite Mitchell Repetto Doucet of Marshfield; her fiance, Arthur Cannon Jr. of East Falmouth; an aunt, Patricia Spooner of Marshfield, and a dear friend, Eleanor A. (Mum) Cannon of Malden.
A funeral mass will be held at 10 a.m. on Friday, June 15, in Saint Patrick's Church, Main street, Route 28, Falmouth. Interment will follow in Saint Joseph's cemetery, Falmouth. Visiting hours are omitted. Donations in her memory may be made to the MSPCA, 1577 Falmoutth Road, Centerville, MA 02632.
Michael Wild
1941-2000
Michael Wild, a lifelong resident of the Edgartown Great Plains and whose singular spirit and legendary way of life left a lasting mark on Martha's Vineyard, died peacefully on July 31 in the Boston Medical Center at the age of 58. The cause of death was cancer.
From the pristine shores of the Edgartown Great Pond where he made his home at an old-fashioned camp named Forever Wild, to the far less pristine venue at the Edgartown landfill, where he held court on a regular basis — Mr. Wild was a familiar figure to a wide variety of Island residents. He was known for the fact that he never kept his light under a bushel.
He was a land planner and former executive director of the Martha's Vineyard Commission who cared deeply about conservation and environmental protection. He led colorful and memorable Island history tours for school children. He was a Vietnam veteran. He was the master of ceremonies at the pet show at the annual Agricultural Society fair, where he awarded only blue ribbons to children and their pets. As a side job, he made dump runs for anyone who needed them. Rattling along the Island roads in his pickup truck, also named Forever Wild, it was his habit to stop frequently, roll down the window and engage in high-decibel conversations with everyone he knew along the route.
With his unruly dishwater blond hair, his ruddy complexion and his penchant for speaking out on the issues, Mr. Wild was an Island character in the best sense of the word. His voice was articulate, cogent and worldly and he had a reservoir of altruism that was truly bottomless.
"It's so easy and quick for someone to have a spiritual, an emotional interest in the Island," he said in an interview with the Vineyard Gazette in 1982.
Michael Wild was born on Dec. 15, 1941, in New Rochelle, N.Y., the first child and only son of the late Ronold and Dorothy Wild. The Wilds made their first visit to Edgartown on a sailboat in the same year that Michael was born.
He spent childhood winters in Mamaroneck, N.Y., and summers on the family farm in the Edgartown Great Plains, where his parents worked the land. They grew potatoes and lived in a house with no electricity. During World War II his mother brought a dairy cow to the Island which she had bought at R.H. Macy's department store in New York.
He graduated from Rye Neck High School in 1960, and later attended Goddard College, Columbia University School of General Studies and also the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1967 he enlisted in the United States Navy, and spent the next three years in the service, including a tour of duty in Vietnam. He was stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin on the USS Platte, an oiler, where he was a radar man and the ship's librarian.
He moved to the Vineyard permanently in 1970 after his discharge from the Navy. At that point extensive travels had taken him as far as Israel, where he had worked for a time in a kibbutz. In 1972 he took a job as the assistant to the director of the Vineyard Conservation Society. It was the beginning of a career in land planning which would span the next decade.
In 1975 he began working as a coastal planner at the newly formed Martha's Vineyard Commission. In 1976, while working at the commission, he completed his college education, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from Goddard College. The title of his senior thesis was A Sense of Place: A Survey of Environmental Awareness. Much of the thesis centered on the Vineyard and the role of the unique regional planning commission in protecting special places.
In 1979 Mr. Wild became the executive director of the commission. In 1982 he resigned — not because of some seminal political event, but for simple personal reasons. In his own words, it was time to move on.
For the next 18 years, he continued to work a variety of jobs. He worked in real estate sales for a time, and he later became involved in working as a location scout for film producers. He continued to make dump runs.
He remained active in conservation work, and among other things, he was a member of the Edgartown Ponds Area Advisory Committee and the Edgartown Great Pond Foundation.
He battled tirelessly against a series of luxury home development plans for the Herring Creek Farm on the Great Plains, the same farm originally owned by his parents. Mr. Wild and his family were the target of repeated legal attacks by farm owners Neil and Monte Wallace.
At a recent public hearing on the latest development plan for the farm, Mr. Wild told a story about his experience on the Great Plains during the hurricane of 1954, when ocean waves broke across the farm fields, and he and his sister rode their bikes through the hurricane, spreading their coats with their arms to become small human kites in the wind.
He adored his family, including his daughter, Cleo Winsryg-Wild, who is a student majoring in art at Alfred University, and his step-daughters, Gia Winsryg Ulmer, who is a resident of New York city, and Nora Joan Winsryg Karasik of West Tisbury. He spoke of their accomplishments often, and with the glow that is uniquely shared between fathers and daughters.
Two weeks ago the sudden news of his illness spread around the Island like electricity and was the subject of conversation at every traditional Island gathering place — from coffee shops to town government meetings to the Edgartown landfill.
"Michael brings joy into someone else's life, and then he leaves. That is a Michael Wild attack," said Matthew Stackpole, a longtime friend.
"King of the yard sale underground," wrote Myrna Patterson in a remembrance of him this week.
Mr. Wild was especially known for his spontaneity and his humor. His visits to the office of the Vineyard Gazette inevitably took place during the deadline rush, when he would appear at the threshold of the newsroom, thrust both arms in the air and declare: "Stop the presses! I have an important story!" He was surrounded by the members of his family at the time of his death.
He is survived by his sister, Rebecca Wild Baxter of Sarasota, Fla. and Edgartown; a brother in law, Richard Baxter of Sarasota and Edgartown; two nieces, Julia and Alexandra Baxter, both of Sarasota and Edgartown; his three daughters, Cleo, Gia and Nora; his former partner, Marsha Winsryg; his friend Paul Karasik; and an aunt, June Reilly, of New Rochelle, N.Y.
His ashes will be scattered in the Edgartown Great Pond during a celebration of his life on Sunday, August 6, at Forever Wild. The celebration begins at 4 p.m., and will include a Quaker-style sharing of memories, followed by a potluck feast. Friends are invited to bring photographs, memorabilia and typed stories for a scrapbook. They are also invited to bring nonmotorized vessels to join a twilight flotilla in the Great Pond.
Contributions may be made in his memory to the Friends of the Edgartown Council on Aging, P.O. Box 1295, Edgartown, MA 02539; Camp Jabberwocky, P.O. Box 1357, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568; The Edgartown Great Pond Foundation, P.O. Box 2005, Edgartown, MA 02439, or the Martha's Vineyard Public Charter School through Options in Education, P.O. Box 869, West Tisbury, MA 02575.
Mary Young Was Owner
Of Ice Cream Emporia
Mary E. (Bibs) Young died on June 4 at the Naples Community Hospital.
Bibs was born in Sanford, Me., on Jan. 2, 1930, the only child of George and Christine Pickles, both deceased. She attended local schools including Wainfleet Preparatory School in Portland, Me. She summered at Camp Laughing Loon in New Hampshire and in Maine at Kennebunkport Beach. She was graduated from Jackson College-Tufts University in 1952 with a bachelor of arts degree as an English major; in college, she was captain of the ladies' synchronized swim team.
While living in Greenwich, Conn., for 20 years, Bibs was active in civic affairs and a member of the Riverside Yacht Club. She traveled extensively in Europe, Russia and China. Since 1984 she lived on the Vineyard, and became an Island legend as "Mad Martha;" she and her husband were owners of the popular chain of ice cream stores that was sold in 1998.
Her favorite pastime was patrolling the beaches for shells on Keewaydin Island in Naples, Squibnocket Beach on Martha's Vineyard and Old Greenwich Point in Greenwich, Conn. Memorial services will be held at all those locations to scatter her remains at times to be arranged with her many friends.
Her family was Bibs's life. She leaves her husband of 47 years, Robert; her daughter, Sara, of Bloomington, Ill., and her son, Robert Jr., and daughter in law, Debra, both of Edgartown, plus all the special friends whom she touched with her graciousness and generosity.
In lieu of flowers, her family would suggest a donation to the American Cancer Society, 990 First avenue South, No. 200, Naples, FL 34102.
