Obituaries

James Magnus Finnerty, a longtime Island resident, died on August 27 in his adopted country of New Zealand.

Dorothy (Dorsey) C. Grandfield died peacefully on August 28. She was 96.

A celebration of life for Judy Fraser-Pearse will take place Saturday, Sept. 23 at 2 p.m. at the Vineyard Haven Yacht Club.

Philip (Phil) Joseph DeCocco died on Wednesday, August 30 at Mt. Sinai St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in New York city. He was 79.

Jane Ruth Lison died on Friday, August 18 at Windemere in Oak Bluffs, on her beloved Island of Martha’s Vineyard. She was 86.

Jane W. Farrow, a former longtime Vineyard resident, died Sept. 8 in Venice, Fla. She was 91.

Hilda J. Backus died last week in her daughter Patricia’s arms in the house that she lived in for 71 years on 34 Pine street in Vineyard Haven.

Kathryn Mary Bettencourt, known to everyone as Kay, died on Wednesday, August 30. She was 73.

Jay Sapir, a 20-year veteran of broadcast and print news who formerly lived on Martha’s Vineyard, died August 14 of heart failure in Chicago, Ill.

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