On Easter evening, April 4, an unassuming great woman left us. Nancy (Anne W.) Luedeman died at 6:15 p.m. in the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital of complications from pneumonia. She was surrounded by her daughters and close friends. Having lived for several years at Woodside senior housing, Nancy had quite recently moved to Windemere, from which she was eventually transferred to the hospital. There she received a constant stream of visitors, friends from all parts of the Island and from the many facets of her life — all eager to see her, to touch her, to encourage her. To each person Nancy said, “I love you. Come back.” After her death the nurses noted that they’d rarely seen anything like this flow of people, sometimes lining up at the door of Nancy’s room, waiting to see her.

Nancy was born on Dec. 7, 1920, in New York city. Although her given name was Anne Eaverson Waring, she was always called Nancy. She grew up in Essex Falls, N.J., with her parents, the late Edward and Laura Waring, and her older brothers, now deceased. Having graduated from Glen Ridge High School, she attended Radcliffe College. While there, she met Robert Thomas Luedeman who was studying at MIT. The two hit it off, and on May 9, 1942, they were married. For the first few years the couple lived in several towns in New Jersey, finally settling in Metuchen, where they raised their three children: Alison, Anne and Robert. As her children grew older, Nancy decided to go back to college; she graduated from Douglass College in 1963, and then, for a while, attended Rutgers School of Law. Among several jobs she held over the years was one at Dell Publishing Company as an assistant editor of crossword puzzles, a fascination she continued to have until almost the end of her life. Another enduring fascination was with Ireland which she deeply loved and managed to visit twice.

In 1964 Nancy was looking for an Episcopal church to attend. She happened on the House of Prayer in Newark, and a new chapter of her life began, for at the House of Prayer she met Mary Payne, then wife of the rector, Edd Payne. The story goes that Nancy walked into the kitchen where there was a sink full of dishes (perhaps the water was still running). Anyway, apparently Nancy walked over to the sink and let the water out. And somehow that simple act of Nancy’s “did it” for Mary who, unbeknownst to Nancy, had written a Passion play for the Easter season: “And He Shall Reign.” Mary was in the middle of casting it and needed a Virgin Mary. Who better than this new stranger? Thus, Nancy’s avocation in the theatre began, her interest grew and lasted the rest of her life.

Nancy and Mary soon became close friends and discovered that they were actually cousins — through the Waring line. In 1968 Nancy and Mary moved up to the Island with Mary’s young daughter, Teresa, and Nancy’s daughter Anne, living in Mary’s parents’ house across the road from Seth’s Pond. They joined Grace Episcopal Church in Vineyard Haven and that summer, with the help of the then-rector, Donald Lyons, started a summer drama program for children which became the Children’s Theatre (now 42 years old). When winter came, Mary’s adult acting group morphed, with Children’s Theatre, into Island Theatre Workshop Inc. Although Mary was the one most in evidence: directing, writing plays for both children and adults, and administering, etc., Nancy was no less involved. She did whatever was necessary: from acting to typing scripts, to being Mary’s main adviser, to painting, putting up posters, etc. What she became most known for was doing the lights. She spent almost as much time at the top of a ladder placing and focusing lights as she did running the lightboard. She taught several young people technical work, and more than one young man’s initiation into the technical aspects of theatre was to be clobbered on the head by a falling wrench while footing the ladder for Nancy. She continued working lights into her seventies when at last she decided she’d better remain on the earth.

Meanwhile Nancy was following her other main interest: law. She worked for several lawyers on the Island and eventually went back to law school for a while at Boston University. She did not graduate, but returned to the Island and spent many years working full-time in Rosemary Haigazian’s law office where she became a good friend to Rosemary and Rosemary’s entire family.

In October 1978 Nancy became a devoted and regular “friend of Bill W.’s” and many persons of all ages benefitted from Nancy’s wise and cogent statements, often spoken as one-liners, but with the essence of truth and wisdom behind each remark. If anyone in her hearing complained, “Oh! I should have done or said such and such,” Nancy would answer, “Get rid of the shoulda’s; Should is [expletive deleted].” She was beloved of all “friends of Bill W.” the rest of her life.

Still, she continued with Island Theatre Workshop: acting both in Children’s Theatre and with adults, and helping with all the myriad details to do with theatre. The role she made memorable was the pink-clad Madame Gabrielle (who heard voices coming from her teapot in Madwoman of Chaillot).

Mary Payne died suddenly in October 1996, leaving ITW without an artistic director Lee Fierro, who had worked in many capacities for years with Mary and Nancy, was elected as new artistic director and Nancy was an invaluable support to her and all of ITW in those first difficult months, and the following years as well, remaining on the ITW board until she claimed herself as an emeritus and proudly continued to state: “I’m the oldest member of Children’s Theatre!”

In her last 10 years Nancy performed not only for ITW and Children’s Theatre, but for the Vineyard Playhouse as well, where she went from being an inveterate audience member to acting in several mainstay shows, i.e., the role of Impi written especially for her by friend and director M.J. Bruder Munafo in the playhouse production of The Snow Queen. She also joined some of the playhouse fourth grade project plays — enchanting a whole new generation of children.

Her most recent was Secrets of Cecilia with the Oak Bluffs School.

Nancy was also a consummate and cherished audience member. All of her Island life she attended every theatrical production given by Island Theatre Workshop, the Vineyard Playhouse, the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, most elementary schools and whatever guest productions appeared on the Island. She loved music and attended many concerts at Katharine Cornell Theatre and the Vineyard Haven senior center. There she’d be in the front row, obviously enjoying every word or note of music.

Some of the comments about Nancy have been: “She never disappointed you; you could always count on her; she was a woman of her word; never judgmental; quick-witted; she seemed to give everyone unconditional love.”

She is survived by two daughters, Alison Luedeman Funke of North Carolina and Anne Eaverson Luedeman of the Vineyard; one son, Robert Waring Luedeman of Iowa; a stepdaughter, Teresa Payne Gocha of New Hampshire; four grandchildren, William Bald of New Hampshire, Christine Ann Bald Svidal of Iowa, Jason Luedeman of Tennessee and Jennifer Luedeman Metzger of Pennsylvania; three step-grandchildren, Martin, Malcolm and Margaret Gocha of New Hampshire; and five great-grandchildren, Caroline Bald, Amelia and Natalie Svidal, Victoria Luedeman and Jack Metzger.

There will be two memorial celebrations for Nancy sometime during the summer: one at the Vineyard Playhouse and one at Island Theatre Workshop’s first home (it’s been a vagabond organization for 42 years) on Music street in West Tisbury, the former West Tisbury library, now called the ITW Academy. Nancy knew before she died that ITW finally had a home.

Remembrances in Nancy’s name may be sent to Island Theatre Workshop Inc., P.O. Box 1893, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568, or the Vineyard Playhouse P.O. Box 2452, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568.