Lucille Virginia Dorsey, Founded Island NAACP

Lucille Virginia (Meadows) Dorsey of Vineyard Haven died Oct. 12 at the Martha's Vineyard Hospital in Oak Bluffs. She was 78.

Mrs. Dorsey was predeceased by her husband, Toby Dorsey, and by her parents, Mack and Margaret Meadows.

She was born in 1925 in Red Star, W.Va., and lived in Richmond until she was two-and-a-half years old, when she came to live in Vineyard Haven with her mother, Margaret, and favorite uncle, Wilbur. She attended school in Vineyard Haven and was graduated from Tisbury High School in 1944. That same year she married Toby, a southern sailor boy.

Mrs. Dorsey worked as a Red Cross volunteer during World War II and was a devoted homemaker to her family. She worshipped at the First Baptist Church in Vineyard Haven and loved to attend Bradley Memorial Church in Oak Bluffs with her mother during the summer months.

She will be remembered as one of the founding members of the Martha's Vineyard chapter of the NAACP and for her contributions to their cause.

Later in life, Mrs. Dorsey became especially fond of her friends and coworkers at Martha's Vineyard Hospital, where she worked for more than 20 years.

Mrs. Dorsey is survived by her three daughters, Denise Margaret Dorsey Cafarelli, Corrine Katherine Dorsey-Riseborough and Lori Mercier Dorsey, and her three grandchildren, Ashleen Marie Carafelli, Toby Danger Riseborough and Margaret May Riseborough, all of Vineyard Haven.

Memorial gifts may be made to the First Baptist Church Building Fund, the Vineyard chapter of the NAACP or Hospice of Martha's Vineyard. Arrangements were under the care of the Chapman, Cole & Gleason Funeral Home in Oak Bluffs.