Dorothy Elizabeth Alexander died after a brief illness at the Henrietta Brewer House in Vineyard Haven surrounded by her children.

Dorothy was predeceased by her husband, Paul F. Alexander in 2006 after more than 62 years of marriage. She was the beloved mother of three, grandmother of eight and great-grandmother of six.

She was born a coal miner’s daughter in Burgettstown, Pa. in 1920. Her father, Oliver Breen, was killed in a coal mining accident when she was just three years old. Dorothy’s mother, Ellen Breen, and her little sister Virginia, then moved back to Needham, the hometown of her mother’s family.

Dorothy and her high school sweetheart, Paul, both graduated from Needham High School in 1938. The attack on Pearl Harbor took place in December 1941, when they were both 21 years old, and Paul was on his way to war shortly thereafter. They were married at St. Joseph’s Parish in Needham when Paul returned to shore on Dec. 30, 1943.

After the war the Alexanders raised their family, daughter Gail and sons Frederick and Mark. Paul worked for New England Telephone as an engineer and eventually created and ran a family business that consisted of a telephone answering service, apartment buildings and other interests.

In 1977, after their youngest son was married, the Alexanders sold their Needham home and lived fulltime in their Cape home on Nye’s Neck in North Falmouth. Throughout her life Dorothy used every opportunity she had to involve herself in musical endeavors. In the early 1960s Dorothy belonged to a women’s chorus group, the Sweet Adelines, in Needham. She loved to participate in the local community theatre group in Needham, and sang in the parish choir of St. Elizabeth Seton Church in North Falmouth for more than 30 years.

Dorothy will be deeply missed by all the friends she made in Needham, her choir group in North Falmouth, her exercise group, the wonderful people at the Martha’s Vineyard Center for Living, where at the age of 95 Dorothy could still sing a song in tune and cut a mean dance step, and her friends at the Henrietta Brewer house, along with her loving family.

Her funeral Mass will be held at St. Elizabeth Seton Church in North Falmouth at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, June 9. Visiting hours will be held beforehand, from 9 to 10 a.m. at the Chapman Cole and Gleason Funeral Home in West Falmouth.