Regina McDonough, of Hingham, Oak Bluffs, and Naples, Fla., died in Winchester on July 28, 2018. She was 97, and a summer resident of Martha’s Vineyard for over 50 years.
Regina was born the eldest of five children to Walter and Suzanne MacPherson of Dorchester and Roxbury, and raised in Springfield, where she attended Cathedral High School and Westfield State Teachers College (now Westfield State University).
During World War II she was an American Red Cross volunteer, serving in Washington, D.C., and Fort Dix, N.J. After the war, while teaching in Springfield, she met her husband Robert, a Springfield native and a newly minted tax attorney with the Internal Revenue Service. They were married in 1953, and lived in White Plains, N.Y. where she was an elementary school teacher in Scarsdale. In 1960, her husband became a partner in the Boston law firm of Herrick and Smith, and they relocated to Hingham, where she taught at South Elementary School for 20 years.
She first came to the Island of Martha’s Vineyard in 1953 for her honeymoon, as her husband had deep roots on the Vineyard. His family operated Shea’s Restaurant in the old Tivoli Building in Oak Bluffs.
Her career as a teacher gave her the summers off, and many were spent involved in a variety of activities, including the East Chop Beach Club and the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club. An avid bridge player, she was always on the lookout for a game.
In her later years, she was able to spend more time on the Vineyard, as well as winters in Naples, Fla. On the Vineyard, she was involved with the Oak Bluffs Senior Center and various bridge clubs throughout the Island, and when entertaining at home, she might be persuaded to play a few tunes on the piano. In 1999, with a group of her Martha’s Vineyard friends, she toured Switzerland. In Naples, she was a volunteer teacher in the Naples Public Schools, a longtime member of the Naples Garden Club, and a lifelong jazz aficionado who was always up for viewing local bands or attending jazz concerts.
A prolific reader, crossword puzzle expert, and outstanding cook, she was a good neighbor to all. A proud mother and grandmother, she is survived by her son Jim and his wife Carol; her two grandchildren, Meredith and Olivia; and two sisters, Bernadette MacPherson of Hingham and Virginia Hinds of Norwell. Her husband Robert predeceases her.
Visiting hours will be at the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home, Edgartown Road, Oak Bluffs, on Thursday from 5 to 7 pm and a funeral Mass will take place at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, Massasoit Avenue, Oak Bluffs, on Friday, August 3, at 10 am. Burial will follow in the Oak Grove Cemetery, Pacific Avenue, Oak Bluffs. Donations in her name, in lieu of flowers, can be made to the Partnership with Native Americans, nativepartnership.org. Visit ccgfuneralhome.com for online guestbook and information.
I’ll always have a smile for you Regina, you’ll always be alive in my memories.
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