Eleanor C. Bennett of River Edge, N.J. and Oak Bluffs died June 14. She was 89.

She graduated with an economic degree from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1942. She worked as an administrative assistant for a medical doctor for 25 years. She was a devoted wife for 61 years to the late William J. Bennett. Eleanor was an active member at both Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Maywood, N.J. and Trinity United Methodist Church in Oak Bluffs.

She is survived by her children, William H. Bennett and his wife Elizabeth P. Schoyer of Charlottesville, Va. and Nancy B. Davis and her husband Jonathan E. of River Edge. She was the cherished grandmother of Jonathan E. Davis Jr. and his wife Jessica, Lindsay A. Davis, Caitlin S. Davis, and Miranda E. Bennett. She is also survived by her extended family of Lewis Bates Codding 4th and his wife Patricia and their daughter Sarah and her daughter Amber; and Guy K. Codding and his wife Brenda and their sons Geoff and William, all of Vineyard Haven. She was the sister of the late Frances C. Baker.

Eleanor's roots have always been on the Vineyard. Her grandfather, the Rev. Lewis Bates Codding was a Methodist preacher, a circuit rider on the Cape and Islands prior to the 1850s. He often preached at the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs and for two years he was a minister in the Chilmark Methodist Church. Her two aunts, Sarah B. Codding and G. Amber Codding were longtime year-round residents of Oak Bluffs since the 1940s. Eleanor had been coming to the Vineyard for her summer vacation ever since she was a young child. She could remember riding on the Flying Horses in the 1920s. After her husband’s retirement, together they would spend from the end of May to the end of September at their East Chop home.

What Eleanor loved the most was having her children, grandchildren and friends share her summer home and the Island she loved so much. She enjoyed taking walks around Plymouth Park and talking to all her neighbors. During her time on the Island, she called Trinity United Methodist Church her summer church.