Maureen Jean (Fisher) Anderson of Oak Bluffs died peacefully at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital on August 10, surrounded by family after a long and valiant battle with cancer. She was 80.

She was born in Oak Bluffs on Feb. 5, 1939, to the late Meredith Sheldon Fisher and Ruth (Madeiras) Fisher. She lived her entire life in Oak Bluffs, the town she loved.

She graduated from the Oak Bluffs High School in 1956. While in high school, she was queen of the prom and a cheerleader for the boys’ basketball team. It was at one of those basketball games that she caught the eye of a handsome young man serving in the U.S. Air Force who was stationed at the Peaked Hill radar station in Chilmark. William G. (Bill) Anderson was that man, and by the fall of 1956 they were engaged. They married on Dec. 29, 1956 and were married for 62 years.

They worked hard, sacrificed, and raised four children on the Oak Bluffs harbor. Maureen created a happy, loving home for her children to grow up in. She took great pride in her home and enjoyed decorating it to compliment the changing seasons and holidays. Every spring, she planted beautiful flowers in the window boxes and around the yard.

One of her greatest joys was to have all her children and grandchildren together to share a meal and spend time together. She loved bringing the family together for one of her spectacular Thanksgiving feasts or for a special occasion when she might delight a family member or friend with a baked Alaska, one of her many specialties. She loved hosting dinner parties, socializing with other couples, going out to dinner, traveling with Bill, walking all around Oak Bluffs, and going out to lunch with her girlfriends and then cruising the down-Island towns with them. Maureen was fun and funny, a wonderful wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt and friend. As the matriarch of her family, she was its heart and soul. She had a wonderful life.

She is survived by her devoted husband, William G. Anderson; two sisters, Sandra Thornton of Portland, Ore. and Linda Campbell of Bass River; four children, Dr. Kristen L. Anderson of St. Pete Beach, Fla., William M. Anderson of Oak Bluffs, Katherine Farrissey of Oak Bluffs, and Gretchen Anderson of West Tisbury; eight grandchildren; two newborn great-grandchildren, and many cousins, nieces, nephews and friends. She was predeceased by a grandson, William Farrissey of Oak Bluffs, earlier this year.

A memorial mass was held on Sept. 7 at Our Lady Star of the Sea in Oak Bluffs. Interment was in the Oak Grove Cemetery in Oak Bluffs where Maureen’s parents and all four grandparents are interred.

Donations can be made to Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard, VNA of Cape Cod, or the Portuguese American Club.

Arrangements are under the care of the Chapman, Cole, and Gleason Funeral Home. Please visit www.ccgfuneralhome.com for online guest book and information.

Corrected from the print version published on August 16, 2019.