Barbara Jane Dugan (née Porter) died peacefully on April 21, 2018, after a bout of pneumonia.
Barbara was born in Rockland, Maine, on Nov. 18, 1929, to Maynard and Clara Porter. She and her family moved to Martha’s Vineyard to help her father’s brother run his restaurants when he took sick. She attended Tisbury Elementary School through middle school. After spending a number of years in Brooklyn, N.Y., where her dad ran a diner, she quit school and worked at Macy’s. She returned to the Vineyard in her late teens, while her father was in the armed services, a chef on the troop carrier that would deliver troops to the Battle of the Bulge.
She held numerous jobs on the Vineyard, from cashier at a grocery store in Vineyard Haven to owning a women’s clothing store in Vineyard Haven called Bee Jay’s, and was a popular bartender at the Boston House. She also spent time in several hardware stores and Cottle lumberyard.
Barbara enjoyed painting, both watercolor and oil painting, and her works were sometimes exhibited for sale. She also was known to play a mean game of darts, and loved to entertain others with her singing. She had a deep repertoire of songs from her childhood.
She was predeceased by her two older sisters, Alice Hart and Mabel Silva. She is survived by her two sons, Glenn Andrews of North Tisbury, and Tom (Andrews) Anzer of Concord, three grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.
Near the end of her life, Barbara was well cared for by her eldest son, Glenn, with support from Vineyard Elderly Services and the “angels” of the Visiting Nurses Association on the Vineyard. For the last year and a half, she lived in the Life Care Center of Acton, near her younger son’s home. He visited her nearly every afternoon while she was there.
Interment will be private. Anyone wanting to make a donation in Barbara’s memory may give to Island Elderly Housing or Visiting Nurses Association of Martha’s Vineyard.
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