Obituaries & Death Notices

HYANNIS, MASSACHUSETTS — In a stunning repeat performance that has Cape Cod law enforcement shaking their heads, 34-year-old Alex Fraga — the same Hyannis man who pleaded guilty in federal court in 2017 to flooding the region with deadly fentanyl and heroin — was arrested Friday with more than 4.5 kilograms of cocaine and $125,000 in cash. Yesterday – April 17, 2026 – Barnstable Police Department detectives, working with a multi-agency task force, executed search warrants at three Hyannis…

An 85-year-old cyclist died following a collision with a box truck on Route 151 in Falmouth last Thursday, authorities said.

Oak Bluffs voters have solidified their decision that it’s time their town intervene and take control of the Island Theatre.  Throughout the day, voters across three towns — Oak Bluffs, Edgartown, and West Tisbury — cast their ballots for various, mostly uncontested races and ballot questions at annual town elections on Thursday. While town clerks and poll workers still need to finalize the tallies, the initial results have come in.  And in Oak Bluffs, ballot question number four,…

As our Island towns convene for their annual town meetings this spring 2026, we have the opportunity to reflect back 250 years, to when nearly 60 Massachusetts towns, in 1776 alone, debated the notion of Independence. In 1776 — actually, beginning in 1774 — the three towns on the Vineyard incorporated in 1671, Chilmark, Edgartown, and Tisbury, were taking up their own declarations. When the British passed the Massachusetts Government Act in 1774 to ban town meetings,…

In one of the rites of spring, Islanders will be heading into their respective halls to attend a great pageant of New England: the annual town meeting. On Tuesday, three communities on the Island — Oak Bluffs, Edgartown, and West Tisbury — held their town meetings, and voters made important decisions that will impact their communities.The other three towns will soon follow with their own meetings. From sky-high overrides utilized to fill major gaps in town budgets to changing bylaws for how short-term…

• Voters passed Article 51 which empowers the town to proceed with the taking of the Island Theatre by eminent domain. —Dena Porter
• Island Theatre co-owner Brian Hall spoke of the extensive weather damage to the building among other challenges. —Dena Porter
• Island Theatre co-owner Ben Hall, Jr. explained that the building is structurally sound and is not condemned. —Dena Porter
• Billie Jean Sullivan shared her concerns about the allocation…

The Island’s only family campground, with 180 campsites and dozens of cabins and RV sites that pepper the woods in Tisbury during the summer, was acquired on Wednesday by a holdings company that has a wide portfolio of campsites and resorts across the country. Northgate Holdings, a Michigan-based holdings company that Northgate Resorts operates under, purchased Martha’s Vineyard Family Campground, located at 569 Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road, this week. The news of the acquisition comes just…

The daffodils are busting open. The dark-green-leafed andromeda is festooned in blossoms that remind me of grand strands of pearls. It is fun to strip them off their pedicels and to cut spent daffodils into confetti until the basket is full, and then scatter them at the base of boulders and favorite trees and into pictures on the lawn where you’d hoped to plant the bulbs you’d meant to separate from the crowded clusters, and to give yourself grace because many things are changing and responding…

The daffodils are busting open. The dark-green-leafed andromeda is festooned in blossoms that remind me of grand strands of pearls. It is fun to strip them off their pedicels and to cut spent daffodils into confetti until the basket is full, and then scatter them at the base of boulders and favorite trees and into pictures on the lawn where you’d hoped to plant the bulbs you’d meant to separate from the crowded clusters, and to give yourself grace because many things are changing and responding…

I start this column with sad news, as our Tisbury town columnist, Kay Mayhew, has passed away. As the newest columnist of the bunch, I only had the pleasure of meeting her once, but read her column weekly. Her introduction of “Heard on Main Street” was always such a curious and smart way to kick off a column, and for that, I tip my journalistic hat to her. Sending prayers of peace to her family and all those who knew her.  Sadly, there’s no segue…

I start this column with sad news, as our Tisbury town columnist, Kay Mayhew, has passed away. As the newest columnist of the bunch, I only had the pleasure of meeting her once, but read her column weekly. Her introduction of “Heard on Main Street” was always such a curious and smart way to kick off a column, and for that, I tip my journalistic hat to her. Sending prayers of peace to her family and all those who knew her.  Sadly, there’s no segue…

“You can meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society.”  –Kurt Vonnegut   Wasn’t it thrilling to watch the Artemis II mission make that incredible journey around the moon? It was just amazing to me that we could see the astronauts in real time, watch and listen as they experienced time in a capsule hurtling though space. They were not bragging about themselves afterward, either — they were sharing an emotional experience…

“You can meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society.”  –Kurt Vonnegut Wasn’t it thrilling to watch the Artemis II mission make that incredible journey around the moon? It was just amazing to me that we could see the astronauts in real time, watch and listen as they experienced time in a capsule hurtling though space. They were not bragging about themselves afterward, either — they were sharing an emotional experience with…

I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o’er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.   Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.   The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet…

We at The Times are heartbroken to report that Kay Mayhew, the Tisbury town columnist since 1987, passed away on April 12. “Too many birthdays and now lung cancer have now cut my time short,” she wrote in her final sign-off letter to the town. We offer our deepest condolences to her family — and also to the town, which has lost a local treasure. Below are some of Kay’s signature “Heard on Main Street” quips from this week over the past decade.    Heard…

A new tool for calculating an individual homeowner’s tax increase from the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School’s (MVRHS) building project went live last Friday, clarifying how each town’s differing policies impact the cost burden on year-round residents.  The Times published the first look at tax burdens for all property owners in March based on data from UniBank and real estate prices in each town. But the tax calculator is a deeper look, showing residents their individual payments based…

Mary Elizabeth (Mitchell) Splaine, born April 15, 1933 to Francis Joseph Mitchell and Agnes Gertrude (Kelley) Mitchell of Medford, died at the age of 92, one week shy of her 93rd birthday, at home on Nantucket April 8, 2026.

After deliberating deep into the night on Tuesday over town expenditures, Oak Bluffs voters will need to return to the high school’s Performing Arts Center on Wednesday to hopefully wrap up voting on the remaining warrant articles of the annual town meeting.  Discussion during the town’s annual and special town meetings lasted from around 7:30 pm to 10:40 pm, and while 50 articles still need to be decided on, voters did make a major decision and approved a $1.9 million override to fill a funding…

Over a hundred West Tisbury residents filed into their local elementary and middle school on a bright spring day to vote on a 56-article town meeting warrant that will set the tone for the next year, and the future, for residents and municipal representatives alike.  On Tuesday, April 14, the West Tisbury School was packed full of voters, many eager to vote with their mint green ballots for issues ranging from a budget override to housing initiatives. The town meeting went into the night, with passionate…

At the Edgartown special and annual town meeting on Tuesday night, Edgartown voters approved over $1.4 million in overrides both to fund the next year’s operating budget and also purchase the Martha’s Vineyard Boys and Girls Club property.  The meeting, held at the Old Whaling Church, drew a total of 245 Edgartown voters, most articles passed with little opposition, and only two articles were denied. The special and annual town meetings started at 7 and ended at…

On April 3, 2026, Theodore Jochsberger, 86, headed off to his next adventure.  Ted was born in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan while Franklin Roosevelt was still president. At that time, the German-American Bund was on the rise there, so as a child, he experienced anti-Semitism firsthand. His mother had emigrated from Hungary, one of 10 children, and his father, an only child, was a first-generation American with roots in Munich. He had one brother, Stephen, who predeceased him, and two…

Eben Choate Clark Jr. (“Ben”) passed peacefully on the sunny spring morning of April 28, 2025. He was at home, surrounded by his loving daughters. His 81 years on earth were filled with many adventures, achievements, tinkering about, and lots of “Clark humor.” Ben was born in Boston, on Dec. 14, 1943, to Eben Choate Clark and Margaret Stevens Clark. Ben was a curious boy at heart, observant of the natural world around him and genuinely fascinated by how machines…

Shirley Jane (Prada) Craig, a renaissance woman with lifelong passions for music, art, travel, and adventure, died peacefully on Jan. 5, 2026, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, surrounded by family.  A third-generation native Islander, Shirley was born on July 13, 1935, to Albert and Genevieve Prada of Edgartown. When she was 6, both she and her father were diagnosed with tuberculosis. While her father convalesced at a sanatorium in Pocasset, the family moved to…

John H. Randolph lll (”Randy”) passed away in the early morning of March 18, 2026. A Wampanoag tribal member, he grew up on Martha’s Vineyard and lived on-Island his whole life. He graduated from MVRHS with the class of 1972, and soon after started working for the Oak Bluffs Water Department and District until his retirement. There is a John H. Randolph No. 5 Pumping Station on Edgartown–Vineyard Haven Road, in Oak Bluffs, named in his honor. He served his…

A Board of Health member has proposed a three-year moratorium on artificial turf unless testing shows zero levels of certain contaminants, a move that, if passed, could affect plans for a new field at Nantucket High School.

Mary Elizabeth (Mitchell) Splaine, 92, of Nantucket, died Wednesday, April 8, 2026. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 18 at the Unitarian Universalist Church on Orange Street.

Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) commemorates the 6 million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust. Around the world, Jewish communities observe it with special services, the lighting of yellow candles, and reading the names of the victims. This year, it begins at sundown on April 13, but is generally being celebrated on Sunday, April 12. On Holocaust Memorial Day, my mind turns to my own experiences from that era, and the relationships that sprang from it. My earliest memory of Rudy…

Rebecca Haag, a stalwart figure in the Island’s nonprofit world, was slated to be the sole candidate to run for the select board in Chilmark. But, in a last-minute twist to what’s been an uneventful election cycle, a new candidate has entered the race with a write-in campaign.  Chilmark residents recently received a letter from Katherine Carroll, president of the Menemsha Texaco who serves various roles in town government including as chair of the Chilmark Board of Health, on Thursday asking…

HYANNIS, MASSACHUSETTS — A man on an electric scooter was injured Thursday evening when he collided with an SUV at the busy intersection of Main Street and Camp Street. Barnstable Police and a Hyannis Fire Department ambulance crew rushed to the scene after the scooter struck the SUV. The rider hit the vehicle’s windshield and was left banged up but conscious and alert, officials reported. He was transported to Cape Cod Hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening. The woman driving…

Michael McDonald, 82, of Nantucket, died Monday, April 6, 2026. A funeral was held Tuesday, April 16 at the Saunders-Dwyer Home for Funerals in New Bedford, followed by a mass at St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish Church in New Bedford.

Philip Graham "Flip" Connell, III, 76, died Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. A celebration of life was held Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026 in Melbourne, Australia. A U.S. celebration will be held Saturday, May 16 in Warren, Vt. Contact John Connell for…

In July, students from the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS), along with family and fellow community members, will swim to make a difference in the fight against cancer. Juniors Leah Thompson and Zoe Treitman are leading the first Island-wide Swim Across America fundraiser to support Martha’s Vineyard Hospital’s Cancer Center.  Swim Across America (SAA) is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to raising money and awareness for cancer centers and research through charity…

Stuart Cope Walpole passed away after a brief illness on March 23, 2026.  Born on Nov. 9, 1950, to Charlotte and James Walpole, Stuart was a lifelong Edgartown resident who carried his love for his hometown with him. Growing up in a close-knit neighborhood alongside the O’Neils, McLanes, and Labells, his childhood was filled with simple joys — pickup baseball games, building forts in the woods, and football in the front yard. Those early days shaped the kind of…

Theodore Jochsberger (“Ted”), 86, of West Tisbury, died on Friday, April 3, 2026, at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital. He was the husband of Deborah V.B. Wells, and father of Amy.  A graveside service will be held on April 8 in the West Tisbury Cemetery, on State Road in West Tisbury, at 2 pm, officiated by the Rev. Pamela Danz. A complete obituary will follow in another edition of this paper. Visit chapmanfuneral.com for online guestbook and information. The post…

A sky-high budget pushing West Tisbury to request it be allowed to collect more in property taxes and fill a $3.5 million gap was top of mind for voters when they gathered to meet candidates at the local library last week. The League of Women Voters of Martha’s Vineyard opened its first candidates forum this year at the West Tisbury Free Public Library on Tuesday, April 7, and voters heard from candidates running for office in West Tisbury, like longtime incumbent town clerk Tara J. Whiting-Wells. …

BRISTOL, Tenn., April 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A miner at Horse Creek Eagle Mine in Raleigh County, W.Va. has passed away following an accident on Thursday evening when a piece of rock struck him.

BARNSTABLE, MASSACHUSETTS — A Barnstable County jury has convicted Adrian Black of Taunton of first-degree murder, for the 2023 stabbing death of 19-year-old Milteer Hendricks of Falmouth, Cape & Islands District Attorney Robert J. Galibois announced today. The jury returned the verdict after deliberating for approximately two hours at the end of a trial that began March 19 and concluded April 2. Black, who was 22 at the time of the killing, now faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison…

Edgartown voters will be deciding whether the town should pursue a $3 million purchase of the Martha’s Vineyard Boys & Girls Club building, and a more than $900,000 increase to the overall budget, at the upcoming special and annual town meetings that may lead to increased property taxes, among dozens of other spending requests.  The meeting begins at 7 pm at the Old Whaling Church on Main Street, on Tuesday, April 14. The town election, when Edgartown voters will cast their ballots for town…

Liam Cosgrove with his boat the Oyster Catcher. – Ella Munnelly Long after the summer crowds have left the Island, those who remain are able to enjoy the peak-quality shellfish that the winter has to offer. Oysters in the winter are sweet. Colder water slows their metabolism, causing them to store more natural sugar for energy. This buildup gives them their distinct flavor, along with a firmer, meatier texture.  A bay scallop right out of the water is delicate and tender, with a similarly…

David Chesley Maddox passed away Wednesday, March 18 at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, after fighting a long illness.  David was born on Dec. 12, 1950, in Winston-Salem, N.C., to Herbert David Maddox and Eloise Kinoma Stephens. Dave’s daily practice was to celebrate life. This came largely from growing up in a lively household, where his parents entertained community members and luminaries. Dave’s love of music was born in his youth when he attended concerts, theater…

Francis J. Marselli (“Frank”), 83, beloved husband of Patricia (Charest) Marselli, of West Tisbury peacefully passed away on Monday, March 23, 2026.  Born on Oct. 14, 1942, in Middletown, Conn., he was the son of Daniel and Rita (Fontanelli) Marselli. He attended Middletown and Cromwell schools, and was a tool-and-die maker all his life. He was a very strong, loving, and kind man. He loved people and life. He was proud of his Italian heritage and loved his country.…

A graveside ceremony for Terry Andrew Canha, 72, of Oak Bluffs, who passed away unexpectedly on Dec. 19, 202,5 at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, will be held at noon on Saturday, April 11, 2026, at the Oak Grove Cemetery in Vineyard Haven, where he will be laid to rest among close family and friends. The post Terry Andrew Canha appeared first on The Martha's Vineyard Times.

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John Archibald Dunning, 84, of Boynton Beach, Fla. and Nantucket, died Tuesday, March 17, 2026. Funeral services will be held privately.

David Emerson Barnes, 75, of Dover, N.H., died Friday, April 4, 2025. A private memorial service will be held in September on Nantucket.

Michael "Peppy" Allen, 68, of Nantucket, died Sunday, March 8, 2026. A celebration of life will be held in the spring or summer of 2026 on Nantucket.

(March 29, 2026) David Fredericks, 67, of Nantucket, passed away Wednesday, March 25, 2026, on Nantucket.

The Martha’s Vineyard Community Foundation (MVCF) announced a new scholarship fund for Island students who are in pursuit of higher knowledge.  The Dr. James H. Weiss Scholarship Fund was named after the benefactor himself, who was the superintendent of Island schools for a decade and died in August after a hard-fought battle with leukemia. The fund holds $180,000 to be awarded to local students who plan to attend a two or four-year bachelors or graduate program.…

So we’re going to Naples, Fla., in April. Now, some of you may know that I’m married to the self-appointed Energy Czar. And while everyone has been flying everywhere, my travels have been mostly with Rick Steves, or taking virtual tours online, or when I get my friend Frankie’s gorgeous photographs from her exotic travels — I can imagine myself in her worlds, and I’ve actually been satisfied and haven’t complained. Except sometimes when it’s gray outside and someone sends a photo of…

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