Carol Ebert Perry died in the early morning of Dec. 26, a victim of metastatic breast cancer, a disease she had fought bravely for the past 15 years. She was 69, but for those who loved her she remained lovely and young.

 She was born in New York city on August 19, 1947, the first daughter of John and Katherine Ebert. Her father was an electrical engineer, her mother a mathematician. Carol graduated from Bethesda High School in Maryland in June 1965. Three months later she became a member of the freshman class of 1969 at Wellesley College. A year later Carol’s parents moved to Wellesley Hills when her father was appointed vice president of an electronics firm in Waltham.

In January of her junior year at Wellesley Carol was introduced to Ed Perry, a technical writer from Natick, by their mutual friend Cathy Kostick, one of Carol’s dorm mates. Their first date was on Groundhog’s Day for dinner and then to watch planes take off and land at Logan Airport. For some reason, Carol was impressed by Eddie and the two became boyfriend and girlfriend, the beginning of a relationship which would last 48 years, with much of that time spent at the Perrys’ summer cottage in Oak Bluffs.

Carol majored in economics and after graduating in 1969 she spent an academic year at the University of Michigan, where she earned a master’s degree in economics.

Her first job after college was with Shawmut Bank of Boston, researching the economic viability of potential branch bank sites. Ed, meanwhile, retired from technical writing to build and operate his first radio station, WCIB-FM in Falmouth, which featured Vineyard notables Nelson Coon and Louise Bugbee broadcasting Island news. Most of Carol and Ed’s dates were restaurant dinners in Falmouth or on the Vineyard, where Ed would try to sell the owners radio advertising while Carol studied the economics of the business to determine how much each restaurant could reasonably afford to spend.

Carol left Shawmut Bank in 1972 to take a position as an economist for Blue Cross in Boston, a job she loved and would work at for the next 22 years. Carol and Ed married in September 1973, Ed sold his interest in WCIB, and in March 1974 the Perrys bought their home in Duxbury, then began working to build a new FM radio station in Marshfield. WATD-FM began broadcasting in December 1977 and is now in its 40th year serving the South Shore.

Carol left Blue Cross in 1994 to begin a full time job at the station while raising three children: Franklin, born in 1979; Katherine, born in 1981; and William, born in 1988. Carol loved spending summers on Martha’s Vineyard, walks across Long Point to Tisbury Great Pond, creating artwork, train trips across the country, collecting books and jewelry at Vineyard summer yard sales, her family, and many good friends.

She is survived by her children, her husband Ed, her mother Katherine Ebert, now a resident of Duxbury, her sister Ellen Jeydel of Westfield, N.J., and her best friend, Karin Dumbaugh of Boston.

A celebration of her life will be held on Saturday, Jan. 21 from 1 to 5 p.m. in the Daniel Webster Room at the Marshfield Tavern, 1 Proprietors Drive beside Roche Brothers in Marshfield. Donations in Carol’s honor can be made to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at myjimmyfundpage.org/give/carolperry or Featherstone Center for the Arts in Oak Bluffs.