Mary Lu (Slack) Hough, a longtime resident of Indian Hill in North Tisbury, died Nov. 5 at Country Meadows retirement home in York, Pa., where she had moved in January. She was 95.

She was the widow of George Anthony Hough 3rd, who died last year. The Hough family has had Indian Hill homes since the 1890s, when George A (Pat) Hough of New Bedford bought a farmhouse there that he called Fish Hook.

Mary Lu was born June 11, 1921 in La Crosse, Wis., a daughter of DeVerne Edison Slack and Viola (Bailey) Slack. She attended public schools in Vioqua, Wis., and was always proud of having been the valedictorian of her sixth grade class. She was a 1943 graduate of the University of Wisconsin, where she was a member of Alpha Phi Sorority and president of the women’s journalism society. It was at the university, in her freshman year, that she met her husband-to-be, a fellow student of journalism. The couple were married in New York city in October 1943, just hours after the bridegroom’s graduation from the U.S. Naval Reserve Midshipmen’s School at Columbia University. They had a brief honeymoon at Indian Hill before Ensign Hough reported for active duty.

For the next two years, while George served overseas, Mary Lu worked as a court reporter for the Detroit Free Press and United Press. At the end of World War II George joined her there for awhile, but in 1950 the young couple bought the weekly Vernon County Censor in Vioqua, Wis. They remained there as editors and publishers for the next five years. They then moved to Lancaster, Wis., where George was the editor of the Grant County Independent and Mary Lu was kept busy with their daughter, Mary Pat.

In 1957 the family moved to East Lansing, Mich., and for the next 23 years George taught journalism at Michigan State University’s School of Journalism while Mary Lu worked as an editor for the Michigan Press Association. She later became executive editor of Michigan State’s Business Topics and editor of the Division of Research. In 1979, the Houghs moved to Athens, Ga., where George became a member of the journalism faculty at the University of Georgia. Finally, in 1990, they retired and happily moved year-round to Indian Hill. There they built the home they called the Book House with royalties from the five editions of George’s journalism textbook, News Writing.

Back at the site of their honeymoon as they were, Mary Lu could not have been happier. She liked strolling the beach in search of starfish and taking her grandchildren on shorefront expeditions. Animal lover that she was, Mary Lu not only enjoyed her own housecats, but over the years worried and fussed over neighborhood feral cats that would come to the door on a regular basis. In her early year-round years on the Vineyard she enthusiastically bicycled and bowled, and regularly played cribbage with her neighbor, Marjorie Manter. In later years, she joined the Vineyard Haven health club, Curves, where she was honored as its oldest member when she was in her 90s. “She was an inspiration to all of us,” fellow member Barbara Murphy remembered. “She was always so cheerful and enthusiastic.”

Mary Lu also busied herself editing the writing that her husband continued to do; entertaining guests for sunset-viewing at the Book House; encouraging George in his gardening; and proudly letting everyone know when he won an Agricultural Fair ribbon for his prize-winning garlic. She was a volunteer at the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, which George’s uncle Henry Beetle Hough, longtime editor and publisher of the Gazette, had founded. And no matter how snowy January was, George and Mary Lu, proud of Scottish forebears, were always on hand in Edgartown to enjoy Burns Night suppers honoring Scotland’s poet, Robert Burns.

Although she made one memorable trip to Egypt, where she spent a month sightseeing, in later years her real joy was in the peace of Indian Hill and the company of her friends and family. After George’s death last year, she had hoped to remain on the Island. But her daughter, Mary Pat Hough-Greene of New Freedom, Pa., felt it would be wiser for her to move to a retirement community near her. There Mary Lu was never happier than when extolling the delights of the Vineyard to Pennsylvanians who had never visited the Island. She continued to hope that she would spend at least one more summer at Indian Hill.

She is survived by her daughter, Mary Pat; her grandson, Neil Greene, his wife, Amy, and great-grandchildren Harper and Georgia; and her granddaughter Lydia, her husband, Patrick Harner, and great-grandchildren Patrick Jr., Declan, Liam, and Noah.

A private service of celebration will be held for her family in New Freedom, Pa. during the Christmas season.

Contributions in her memory may be made to the Animal Shelter of Martha’s Vineyard, 1 Pennywise Path, P.O. Box 1829, Edgartown, MA 02539.