Jane Elizabeth Keyser West, Loved Summers in the Camp Ground

Jane Elizabeth Keyser West died at home on Dec. 2 in Mount Clemens, Mich., at the age of 90.

She was born in Shadyside, Ohio, on May 2, 1916, the daughter of Thomas and Lyda Keyser. Starting in 1954, she summered in the Oak Bluffs Camp Ground.

She was the widow of Melvin R. West, who died in 1980 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. Her only sibling, Margaret, predeceased her in 1986.

After graduating from Bellaire High School in 1934 and before beginning her English degree at Mount Union College in Alliance, Ohio, Jane met Melvin West, a Mount Union music student. Following her post-graduation move to Hartford, Conn., for her new job as a psychiatric aide, she and Melvin were married in Hartford on Dec. 31, 1939. They were forced to keep the marriage secret so she would not lose her job.

While Melvin was in the service during World War II, Jane worked at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. After the war, the couple moved to Michigan where Melvin taught music and Jane started her career as a teacher in a one-room country school in Almont, Mich. Later, she taught second and third grade in the L’Anse Creuse school district. After she retired in the late 1970s, she was proud to have two of her many former students as her ophthalmologist and plumber.

In 1954, Jane and Melvin’s Hartford friends, Anita and Phil Buddington, invited them and their two young sons to Oak Bluffs, where Phil had recently taken the position of program director of the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association. They fell in love with Martha’s Vineyard, and returned for the next four summers.

In 1960, their friends Jack and Marcie Dorney asked them to refurbish a cottage they hoped to sell. The Wests were offered one month rent-free if they would clean and paint the cottage. When 4 Forest Circle went up for sale, the Wests bought it for $1,800, a sum that horrified their parents, considering it was a summer home built in 1869.

But as Melvin always said, "There are only two seasons: Christmas and Martha’s Vineyard." Jane was never heard to disagree, and once, when Melvin brought up the idea of selling the cottage, she simply said, "Fine, Melvin, just don’t sell my half."

Jane loved the rhythm of Vineyard life, spending afternoons at the beach with her family, buying produce at the Island farms with her friends, greeting passersby from her Camp Ground porch, evenings with their "Marching and Chowder Society" friends at their cottages, and tending to her famous purple irises, which continue to grace many Camp Ground gardens. The family still owns and enjoys the cottage.

Jane’s quiet strength prevailed throughout her life, when she faced an impoverished Depression girlhood, the early death of her father, and the challenges of teaching in a one-room schoolhouse. She always saw the best in others and reached out to people in need. This tolerance translated to a progressive attitude about social issues.

In the 26 years since her husband’s death, Jane found many ways to live a fulfilling life as an independent woman, traveling and developing great friendships within her church and at the Vineyard. Her gentle manner, calm strength, and generosity will be sorely missed.

Survivors include her sons and daughters-in-law, Douglas West and Irene Ziebarth of Newport Beach, Calif., and Gregory West and Darcie West of Mount Clemens, Mich.; her five grandchildren, Michelle (a physician), Douglas (a pilot), Erika (a political campaign manager), Mallory (a teacher), and Brian (a student); and two great-grandchildren.

The funeral and reception took place Dec. 6 at the First United Methodist Church in Mount Clemens, Mich. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations in Jane’s name to the First United Methodist Church, 57 Southbound Gratiot, Mount Clemens, MI 48043 or the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Tabernacle Restoration Fund.