Obituary : Jacquie G. Maskovsky
Published: July 31, 2008
Jacquie Gentile Maskovsky died on July 19 after a well-fought, eight-year battle with pancreatic cancer.
She died at her home in Torrington, Conn., tended by extraordinary, loving and skilled hospice workers, her husband of 56 years, Marvin "Muff" Maskovsky and her two daughters, Nina Garde of Vineyard Haven and Lisa Barlow of Norwell. She is also survived by her son-in-law Ken Garde of Vineyard Haven.
The family vacationed for 25 years in Oak Bluffs and there formed some of their most fond memories. She and her friend Renee Balter made a series of pen and ink drawings, which they turned into greeting cards and sold at the Bunch of Grapes bookstore. These drawings depicted the somewhat zany aspects of Island life in the 70s, the diverse multitudes disembarking the ferry, the nude beach, the band concert in Ocean Park. After the cards were discontinued at the bookstore, her grandchildren would set up a lemonade stand and sell the unique cards to passers by in front of their home. One summer she directed a household of three vacationing families from Connecticut in painting our cottage on Penacook Avenue with plum blossoms, thus christening that cottage, "Plum Blossom." She also led us all in painting our Volkswagen bus with 60s psychedelia with a regal mermaid riding on the roof. The 14 of us, from age six to 50 years old, took great joy in traveling around the Island in that bus from beach to beach and on rainy days shopping for "Vineyard only" treasures and ice cream.
Jacquie and Muff share a unique story. They were both born on Sept. 29, 1930 in the same hospital room only hours apart. They knew each other in grammar school but became inseparable in high school and have remained so for the past 60 years. Jacquie was renowned for her culinary expertise, her magnificent gardens and her elegant, gracious style of entertaining. As those who knew her will attest, to be a guest in her home was truly an incredible experience.
In her professional life she was an elementary school teacher, a Girl Scout professional and a Planned Parenthood counselor and executive. She remained, first and foremost, a teacher. She always retained a passion for learning. Her legacy to her daughters and six grandchildren, Rebecca, Kaleb, Hannah, and Daniel Garde; Lexi and Andrea Barlow; and her young great-granddaughter, Evalyn Reagan, is that one is never too old to learn something new and rejoice in that new knowledge.
