Lisa DeLorme Cash died on Sept. 27 at Germantown Methodist Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. She was 56.

Lisa was born on August 17, 1955, to Alvin and Gloria Darden, the fourth of their five children, at Bethesda Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio. Alvin Darden was a respected family physician and Gloria Darden was a respected elementary and high school teacher.

Lisa grew up in Cincinnati where she attended Rockdale and North Avondale elementary schools, and Ursuline Academy. She graduated from Woodward High School in 1973. Lisa developed many special friendships during her childhood. She especially enjoyed her lifelong friendship with Diana.

She had a great passion and talent for the arts and received a scholarship to Howard University in Washington, D.C. She earned her B.F.A. from the College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning at the University of Cincinnati.

While at Howard University, Lisa rekindled a relationship with the brother of another childhood friend, Marianna. Kriner and Lisa Cash were married on July 17, 1977, at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Cincinnati. Together, they raised three wonderful children: Kofi Ali, Asil Rashond, and Jade Kriner.

During her impressive 31-year career as a K-12 art teacher at the Edgartown School, the Highcroft School in Williamstown, the Hoosac School in Hoosick, N.Y., and Olinda Elementary School in Miami, Fla. — and as an alumni relations specialist at Williams College and Howard University — Lisa always got the job she sought. After the final interview, she would come home smiling: “I got the job!” Who could turn her down? Lisa was talented and loyal, intelligent and practical, sensitive and caring, creative and fun loving, elegant and classy — an extraordinarily beautiful lady inside and out, first and always.

Lisa had impeccable values. If you didn’t come “correct” by Lisa’s standards, she would “get you told,” clearly and precisely. No one was immune from getting scolded by Lisa, if warranted. She had a quiet, but strong and dignified presence.

Lisa and her family moved to Memphis in 2008 when Kriner accepted the position of superintendent of the Memphis City Schools. There, she volunteered at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, helped plan the annual teen parenting conference sponsored by the Memphis City Schools and Le Bonheur Hospital, and designed art projects for the annual holiday celebration given for Memphis City Schools’ over 1,800 displaced and homeless children.

Lisa had what she wanted and wanted what she had. She had her likes and her loves and expressed both often. She liked to plan social events and remember her nieces and nephews with cards and gifts on their birthdays. She liked to read Danielle Steele romance novels and the life-changing works of Eckhart Tolle. She liked Kriner to read to her at night in his “soothing” tone to help put her to sleep.

Lisa liked to travel. Recently, she told Kriner her travel wish list including going to Paris for a romantic holiday and going to see the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York.

She made several birdhouses and painted them. She liked to draw and illustrate, and take pictures with her Nikon camera. She liked to make simple but elegant jewelry, dolls and cakes.

She liked to watch Oprah, Grey’s Anatomy, Brothers and Sisters, Cake Boss and Camelot on the Starz movie network. She liked to go out to dinner every Friday evening and to a Saturday matinee with Kriner. Sunday was a day of rest and reflection for Lisa. She liked it quiet and peaceful all day.

And Lisa loved teaching. She always was thinking of new ways to make her art lessons fun and engaging. Her students loved her, and would often gather in her room for comfort and encouragement between class periods.

Lisa loved children, butterflies, dandelions and yellow roses. She loved to watch her fish in the aquarium she created for them.

She loved macaroni and cheese and hot tea with lemon. She loved Graeter’s ice cream and Murdick’s fudge.

Lisa loved children’s books. She wrote and illustrated one herself, a tribute to her mother Buttercup, for 8 to 13-year-olds just before she died, titled Spool Days. It will be a classic.

She loved Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera and Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s Les Misérables.

She loved her Lenox and Mikasa china, her Wedgwood tea sets, and her Raine miniature shoe collection. She loved her many keepsake and pick-me-up gifts from Brighton, Coach, Talbots, Tiffany & Co., Williams-Sonoma, Harry & David, and the Black Dog.

Lisa loved her charming Island home on Martha’s Vineyard. A gorgeous pink-blossomed Kwanzan cherry tree and a lovely mottled pink granite bench engraved In Loving Memory — Lisa D. Cash, by Alan Gowell of Edgartown, has been planted and placed in the front yard of her gambrel-style home.

People who knew Lisa well would say, “She is my heart.” However, those who listened to her over the years knew her heart was reserved for her husband and her sons. Lisa was one of the purest and most precious souls you could ever hope to know. And, as is too often the case with things precious, gone too soon from this world.

Lisa is survived by her husband of 34 years, Kriner Cash; their three sons and their new brides — Kofi and Karen Cash, Asil and Amy Cash, Jade and LeAnne Cash. She also leaves her mother, Gloria Darden of Edgartown; sister Janice Frame of Edgartown; brother Alvin H. Darden 3rd of Atlanta, Ga.; sister Lori Darden of Atlanta, Ga.; and brother Michael Darden of Washington, D.C.

She was also fortunate to be survived by a large and loving community of relatives and friends. Lisa’s great generosity of heart and spirit will be missed by the many whose lives she touched.

Her family will host a gathering on Martha’s Vineyard in celebration of her life on Sunday, Oct. 30, from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home in Oak Bluffs. A eulogy and brief memorial service will begin at 2 p.m.

To share memories, thoughts, prayers, or sign the guest book, please go to ccgfuneralhome.com.