Joan Palma Thompson Was Active in Edgartown

Joan Palma Thompson died at her home in Edgartown on Feb. 12 after a difficult battle with cancer. She was the wife of David C. Thompson, to whom she was married for 40 years.

She was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on April 28, 1935, to Joseph Palma and Juliette Weight Palma. Her father was the first pediatrician to practice in Hawaii and a senior partner of the Straub Clinic. She was the great-great-grandaughter of Captain John Paty of Plymouth who came to Hawaii in 1834. In 1846 King Kamehameha 3rd commissioned him as consul and naval commandant for the California coast with the rank of commodore by which he was commonly known. He held the record for the greatest number of voyages by sail between San Francisco and Honolulu.

Joan grew up in Honolulu and graduated from Punahou School in 1953. She received her bachelor's degree from Stanford University in 1957. After living in the San Francisco Bay area for 10 years she moved east to Locust Valley on Long Island where David was director of marketing for an international airline. Joan was president of the Junior League of Long Island in 1972 and 1973 and organized the first designers' show house held in the East.

She and David bought their summer home in Edgartown in 1972 and moved to the Island year-round a short time later, where David first ran Vineyard Yachts and then the LandVest Vineyard office. Joan was a paralegal with Worth & Norton for 18 years.

An avid reader, she worked on the Friends of the Library fundraisers for 15 years and was a trustee of the Edgartown Library from 1990 to 2005. She loved living on Martha's Vineyard and often said it was only a little smaller and colder than Hawaii.

She was a member of the Edgartown Yacht Club, the Women's Club of Martha's Vineyard, the Junior League of Long Island and the Daughters of Hawaii.

Besides her husband, she is survived by her children, Tracy Joan Brown of Marina del Rey, Calif., and Ted Brown of Mountain View, Calif.; a brother, Richard C. Palma of Honolulu, Hawaii; a nephew, a niece and two grand nieces.

Donations may be made to Vineyard Nursing Association, Box 2568, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557, or the Martha's Vineyard Preservation Trust, P.O. Box 5277, Edgartown, MA 02539.

Services will be private.