Carol May Anderson Ingraham passed away peacefully on Dec. 26, 2025, after a long battle with cancer.
Carol was born on March 28, 1951, in Winchendon, the daughter of Donald Buckley Anderson and Maxine Farr Anderson. She attended elementary and middle school in Wethersfield, Conn., and high school in Chatham, N.J. She went on to attend Elmira College for a degree in education. After freshman year ended in the summer of 1970, Carol joined her best friend Martina and another college friend to travel to Martha’s Vineyard for the summer, and that’s where she met William Ingraham Jr.
Carol and Bill fell in love and started an amazing life on Martha’s Vineyard. They got married June 1973 in Shaker Heights, Ohio, with family and friends attending. Bill worked at the Island Color Center with his father, Bill Sr. They bought a home in West Tisbury in 1975. Carol worked for a time at Jim’s Package Store in the office. Carol and Bill had two children, Jennifer May Ingraham, born 1978, and Elias Andrew Ingraham, born 1980. Carol took care of Jenny and Elias, and when they attended school she went back to work. Island Color Center is where she ended up, and she and Bill worked day in and day out providing for their family.
They spent summers when the kids were small at the East Chop Beach Club and Long Point Beach in West Tisbury. There were family trips to visit the sheep farm in Wellesley, where Carol’s sister, Susan, lived with her husband Douglas, who was the shepherd of the farm. They would pack up Bill’s red work van and head to the Big E in Eastern Massachusetts to watch Douglas shear sheep in competitions. Carol and Bill were dedicated to each other, their children and grandchildren, and most of all the paint store where they made lifelong friends and helped the community in many ways.
When Bill retired in 2018 after having some medical issues, Carol was right by his side to take care of him. Carol was the love of Bill’s life; he sadly passed away of a heart attack in his sleep on Nov. 22, 2019. Carol was so strong and did her best to go on without him, but it left a deep hole in her heart.
Her cancer was progressing, and she leaned on her children, son-in-law, and grandchildren for support. She was an amazing mother and grandmother, she was a good friend. Most of all she was always there for whoever needed her. She was funny and a little crazy, and always the life of the party.
Carol is survived by her son, Elias A. Ingraham; her daughter, Jennifer May Ingraham and her son-in-law, Jason A. Robinson, and their children, Samantha May Robinson (Sebastian Becker) and Elizabeth Teresa Robinson (Darien Kral); her great-grandchildren, Riley May Becker, Christopher William Becker, and Teresa Elizabeth Kral; also her nieces, nephews, and cousins. She was predeceased by her parents, Don and Maxine Anderson; her sisters, Sally D. Brey and Susan A. Rodd; her great-grandson, William David Becker; and the love of her life, William A. Ingraham Jr. Memorial contributions can be made in Carol’s name to Hospice of M.V., 455 State Road, PMB 244, Vineyard Haven, MA, 02568, or online at hospiceofmv.org.