Evelyn Healy Wallace, formerly of Vineyard Haven, died on July 31 in Winter Park, Fla., after a long and courageous fight against dementia.

Evelyn was born in the summer of 1933 in Oak Bluffs to Jerome A. and Irene Healy. She attended Fisher College in Boston before earning a master’s in education degree from the University of South Florida. After leaving Boston, she and her husband spent many years living throughout South and Central America. In Panama, she served with the Peace Corps working with the Guna Yana people and other indigenous communities.

In 1965, she relocated to Venice, Fla., with her two children and began a career with Sarasota County Schools as a teacher and occupational counselor at Venice High School. There she led the school’s dropout prevention programs and student vocational counseling. Evelyn was beloved by her students and community where she was actively involved with Rotary, directing the school’s Interact Club, Kiwanis and community theatre.

She had an innate sense of style, was an incredible dressmaker and seamstress, avid reader, singer and actor and had a lifelong passion for traveling the world, especially in Europe where she chaperoned educational trips with the American Institute for Foreign Study.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her sisters Eileen Snowden and Caroline Hines and her brother Jerome S. Healy of Vineyard Haven. She is survived by her children Kimberly Wallace Jones and Frederic W. Wallace; her beloved granddaughter Amory Parker Jones; her son in law Garrick Scott Spears; her many nieces, nephews and cousins, as well as cherished lifelong friends.

In lieu of flowers, a scholarship fund has been established in her name at Venice High School dedicated to students pursuing vocational education.