This is the last week of January, and Beetlebung Farm will be open Wednesday to Sunday, 8 am to 5 pm.
Sunday, Feb. 2, at 5 pm, all are invited to the Chilmark Church for Offerings of Music and Light, followed by supper. Come hear Mark Lovewell, Molly Conole, Seán McMahon, Georgia Halliday, Adele Dreyer, Violet Southwick, Daniel Waters, Loon Lane Players, the Rev. Charlotte Wright, storytellers, poets, and other guests.
I want to thank Charlotte Wright for keeping the light burning, and guiding the Chilmark Community Church through so many transitions. Transitions are not easy for me, and I am grateful that we will have her in the pulpit for the month of February.
Wright came back to the Chilmark Church after our minister was abruptly retired, and expertly guided us through the difficult process of securing the future of the Chilmark Community Church, and most recently the process of finding a minister.
On Sunday, Jan. 26, the Chilmark Community Church unanimously voted for the Rev. Janet Stoddard. She has accepted, and will start in March.
Wright pulled us together, taught us how to work hard and get things done. How to respect and honor personal differences. She kept her eye on individuals’ potential, talents, and weaknesses, the importance of sharing the credit, strengthening our capacity, and sharing the burden so that no one takes on too much, and everyone has the opportunity to participate. We are collectively and individually better because she was our minister.
We have lost another wonderful member of our community, Warren Hollinshead. My heart goes out to his wife Marilyn and the rest of the family.
The following is excerpted from the family’s announcement.
“Warren Henry Hollinshead, age 89, died peacefully and surrounded by love on Jan. 25, 2025.
In the early ’60s, family friends introduced Warren and Marilyn to a property on Martha’s Vineyard that had no electricity, and required manually starting a two-stroke engine to pump water for the house.
“After renting for 25 years, they bought adjacent land on Tisbury Great Pond. There they built a house where Warren laid stone walkways, weeded his driveway with a screwdriver in tattered Brooks Brothers button-downs, planted his flower garden, including M.V. Agricultural Fair blue-ribbon dahlias, and served on the board, then as the president, of the M.V. Historical Society (now the Martha’s Vineyard Museum).
“Warren is survived by his wife, Marilyn; four children and their families: William (Pat) Hollinshead of Milford, N.H., Anne DeCourcey (Ted) of Denver, Colo.; Ellen Hollinshead (Jeffrey Bergeron) of Breckenridge, Colo.; and Dana Hollinshead (Todd Gill) of Harvard. “
I mourn Warren.
Wishing everyone a good week.
If you have any Chilmark Town Column suggestions, email Claire Ganz, cganz@live.com.
