Evangeline Berry, 99, Was Church Organist

Evangeline (Crocker) Berry of Oak Bluffs died Tuesday, June 21. She had been a resident in Windemere Nursing Home since August of 2000, where she played the piano and was the only person the resident parrot didn't bite.

She was born in Worcester on August 31, 1905, the daughter of Frederick I. Crocker and Nellie Chamberlin. As a young girl she and her parents had visited Martha's Vineyard from 1910 until 1924, when she married Joseph Stanley Berry. They resided in Winthrop for many years until 1970, when they bought a summer cottage on the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs. They visited the cottage periodically until 1978, when they moved there year-round. Joseph Berry died in 1990.

Evangeline was graduated from Winthrop High School and went on to night classes at Northeastern University and Boston University. She worked in the credit department of Jordan Marsh in Boston and was a loan officer for the Boston Five Cents Savings Bank for 10 years. She had also worked for Rackman, Sawyer and Brewster Law Office, also in Boston, as a legal secretary.

Evangeline was a member of the Trinity United Methodist Church in Oak Bluffs as well as in Winthrop. She was a member of the Women's Society and taught Sunday school in Winthrop and was a chairperson of several committees of the Women's Society in Oak Bluffs. At the age of 80 she was baptized Catholic in St. Augustine's Church and played the organ there for 10 years.

She was a 50-year member and Star Point of the Order of the Eastern Star of the Winthrop and Oak Bluffs chapters and she was also the Worthy Matron, organist and chaplain. She volunteered with the Red Cross during World War II as a nurse's aide.

She is survived by one son, Joseph S. Berry Jr. of Cape Coral, Fla., and three daughters, Beverly Becker of Onset, Lila Berry of Exeter, N.H., and Evangeline Cathcart of Windsor, Conn.; 13 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren; a sister, Gwendolyn Downey of Oak Bluffs; and many nieces and nephews. Her brother, George Clayton Crocker, and her sister in law, Madeline Crocker, predeceased her.

Her funeral is private and a memorial service will be held in the Trinity United Methodist Church in the Camp Ground on Saturday, August 27, in celebration of her 100th year of life.

Donations may be made in her memory to Hospice of Martha's Vineyard, P.O. Box 2549, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557.

Arrangements are under the care of the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home on the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road in Oak Bluffs.