Stella Brown Kenly, a third generation summer resident of Edgartown, died peacefully on Nov. 17, 2012 at her home in Lake Forest, Ill. surrounded by her family. She was 83 and had not missed a Vineyard summer until this year.

She came from a family of conservationists whose legacy includes the Caroline Tuthill Preserve and Ox Pond Meadow, properties of the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation. Her parents were the late Robert P. and Josephine Brown, who met in Edgartown as teenagers, as did Stella and her first husband, John J. Angevin, the son of Ferris and Marion Angevin and brother of her dear life-long friend, Sylvia Angevin Thompson. The Angevins were founding donors of the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation.

The oldest of four girls, Stella will be fondly remembered as a life force. She loved dancing, the symphony, entertaining family and friends and traveling. She was a competitive tennis player and an avid skier, sailor and golfer. She also adored swimming and family-filled summer days at Cow Bay. She had impeccable taste and an elegant style. She was devoted to her extended family and the Vineyard. In her later years, she built a house adjacent to her childhood summer home on Pease’s Point Way with a view across Ox Pond Meadow to Vineyard Sound.

Born and raised in Providence, R.I., Stella graduated from the Wheeler School and Smith College. In 1951, she married the late John Angevin and they raised four children, first in Buffalo, N.Y. and then in Lake Forest, Ill. In 1978, she married the late Granger F. Kenly on the Vineyard and embarked on a life filled with travel, sports, family and friends.

Stella had a life-long interest in foreign affairs and international politics sparked by her junior year studying at the University of Geneva and the Graduate Institute of International Studies. She was an active volunteer for Smith College and the Allendale School for Boys, among other nonprofits.

She was the much-loved mother of Josephine Angevin of Dedham, Susan Angevin also of Dedham, Robert Angevin of Chicago, Ill. and the late John J. Angevin Jr. of New York city; the sister of Josephine B. Emery of Dedham, Elizabeth B. Wolf of Naples, Fla. and Stuttgart, Germany and the late Madelaine Bigelow of Fearrington, N.C.; and her cousins, Julie Lee of New York city, Mary Muromcew of Washington, D.C. and Rensselaer Lee, also of Washington, D.C. She is also survived by her stepchildren, Margot Kenly of Seattle, Wash. and Granger F. Kenly Jr. of Northfield, Ill.; her grandchildren, Garrett Harper and Nicholas Angevin; her step-grandchildren, Granger, Kevin, Tyler and Kyle Kenly and Colin Narver and many nieces and nephews and their children who were part of her Vineyard summers.

She was a member of the Edgartown Yacht Club, the Onwentsia Club and the Naples Yacht Club. She had a winter home in Naples, Fla. where she lived on the beach, swam daily and loved watching the dolphins and the shore birds.

Funeral services will be held on Thursday, Nov. 29 at 11 a.m. at the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit, 400 E. Westminster Rd., Lake Forest, IL. Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, 57 David avenue, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568 or to Smith College, Northampton, MA 01063.