Glenna Barkan died March 22, 2021 at The Linden, an assisted living facility in Dedham. She was 94.

She was born Glenna Frances Kelley July 30, 1926 in Amesbury to Rex and Helen Kelley, who instilled in her a love of bird watching and baseball. As a girl, she was an avid reader, basketball player, skied, played piano and was a frequent moviegoer. She worked at her grandfather’s pharmacy and soda fountain and had a job assembling walkie-talkies during World War II. After graduating from Amesbury High School in 1944, she went on to graduate from Jackson College for Women in 1948.

She met her future husband Benedict Barkan in November 1948. They were married in Amesbury a year later.

Her first professional job was as a teacher at The Massachusetts Hospital School in Canton. Ben’s work took them to Providence and then Syracuse, where children Chris and Susan were born, followed by a move to the New Haven area, They settled in Branford, where daughter Sally was later born. They lived in Branford for more than 45 years.

She worked as an assistant to faculty in the Yale Child Study Center, for the Branford Review newspaper, and wrote a weekly column for the Indian Neck neighborhood.

Glenna and Ben enjoyed gardening, hiking, camping and skiing. They belonged to a square dance club, were active in the Branford Folk Music Society and Trinity Episcopal Church, and were ardent theatergoers. In later years, they took numerous road trips around the U.S. in their recreational vehicle.

A devoted mother, her great joy was her children. She had an open-door policy toward her children’s friends and the neighborhood.

Service to community was a lifelong value. She gave through service projects at Trinity Church, the Branford Garden Club, AIDS Project New Haven and the Branford Land Trust.

In the late 1970s, she was introduced to quilting and it become a lifelong passion. She made countless quilts for family and friends, for donation and for fundraising raffles. In 1994, she led a project to create Branford’s historical quilt in honor of the town’s 350th anniversary.

Ben and Glenna began coming to the Vineyard in 1979 for vacations. In 1993 they bought a Hidden Cove condominium. In 1997 they bought their home on Pondview Drive in Oak Bluffs. They divided their time between Connecticut and the Vineyard and moved to the Island full-time in 2003. Glenna joined Island Community Chorus, swam with the Polar Bears, volunteered at COMSOG, Felix Neck and St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, joined knitting and rug hooking groups and started a quilt group at the Oak Bluffs senior center. She taught quilting and led the group in making quilts to raise money for fuel assistance, She received an award as the Cape and Islands senior citizen of the year for her work. Eventually, the quilters made and donated dozens of quilts to the Red Stocking Fund.

Ben’s sudden death in late 2004 was devastating for her. She eventually returned to involvement in community, service and her never-ending curiosity about the world.

She is survived by her children: Christopher Barkan and his wife, Libby of Champaign, Ill., Susan Barkan of Seattle, Was., Sally Barkan of Roslindale; grandchildren Charlotte, Phoebe and Eliza Barkan; nieces Heidi and Moira Kelley; great-nephew Henry Creedy; and her beloved cat Peaches. She was predeceased by her brother David Kelley of Manitowoc, Wisc.

A memorial service and reception will be held on Saturday, March 19 at noon at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Edgartown.

Her ashes will be interred in Oak Bluffs beside Ben.

Donations can be made to Coalition to Create the Martha’s Vineyard Housing Bank, The Red Stocking Fund, Second Chance Animal Rescue of Martha’s Vineyard, or Felix Neck.