Jane Ruth Lison died on Friday, August 18 at Windemere in Oak Bluffs, on her beloved Island of Martha’s Vineyard. She was 86.

She was born in New York city on August 10, 1931. As a young woman in the late 1940s, She had an exciting job she loved as a “Girl Friday” for The Theater Guild in New York city. The Theater Guild, a theatrical society founded in 1918, produced 228 plays on Broadway and promoted works by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein 2nd as well as George and Ira Gershwin.

Jane married Walter Charles Lison in August of 1951. They honeymooned on Cape Cod and discovered a brochure at their hotel about an Island named Martha’s Vineyard. They decided to take a trip to the Island the very next day. Not only had they fallen in love with each other, they fell in love with Martha’s Vineyard. They returned nearly every summer and hoped to retire on the Island one day.

Their dream came true in the early 1990s when they moved from Stamford, Conn. to Edgartown. Jane and Walter settled in Katama, near South Beach.

She is survived by her husband, Walter Lison, of Vineyard Haven; her two daughters, Barbara Gubitose and Karen Campbell, both of Fiskdale, and their respective husbands, Joseph Gubitose and James Campbell; and two grandchildren, Jake Gubitose of Chicago, Ill. and Kristin DeSoto of Trumbull, Conn. and her husband, Clint.

A memorial service will be held on Monday, September 25 at 11 a.m. at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 51 Winter street in Edgartown. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Elder Services of Cape Cod and the Islands, escci.org, or the Edgartown Council on Aging, P.O. Box 1295, Edgartown, MA 02539.

Arrangements are under the care of the Chapman, Cole, and Gleason Funeral Home in Oak Bluffs, ccgfuneralhome.com.