Nancy Whitmore Bermudes of Vineyard Haven died suddenly at the Martha’s Vineyard hospital on Nov. 30, 2015 after a brief illness. She was 82.
Nancy Gail Whitmore was born in Cornwall-on-Hudson, N.Y. on August 13, 1933, the younger sibling of her brother Robert and only daughter of Ethel Armitage Whitmore and Gordon Russell Whitmore. Nancy would go on to become an elementary school teacher and the mother of three boys, and developed a passion for art and antiques.
When Nancy was three the family moved to Port Chester, N.Y., where her father worked as a dye chemist for the American Felt Company, and then in 1946 to Derry, N.H. where the family owned a hardware store.
In Derry Nancy attended Pinkerton Academy and graduated in 1951. She subsequently attended Keene College in New Hampshire, where she earned her degree in teaching in 1955. After graduating she became a first grade teacher at the Straw Elementary School in Manchester, N.H.
While she was still in college she worked at Geneva Point, an ecumenical Christian summer camp on Lake Winnipesaukee, N.H. There she met her future husband, Ralph Donald (Don) Bermudes. She and Don were married in 1954 and lived in Manchester, N.H. where they both worked. While she was in Manchester she gave birth to their three sons, Ralph (Skip), David and Scott.
In 1964 the family moved to Martha’s Vineyard, where Don worked at the Martha’s Vineyard Insurance Agency, where he would later become president and co-owner. Nancy was the co-founder of the first preschool on the Vineyard, at the Grace Episcopal Church in Vineyard Haven. After starting the preschool, she became a volunteer teacher in the kindergarten at the Tisbury Elementary School. She was also a volunteer English teacher for Laotian refugee children that had immigrated to the U.S. and made had their way to Martha’s Vineyard during the 1970s.
Nancy kept a vegetable garden, grew flowers, and was a member of the Martha’s Vineyard Garden Club. She especially enjoyed cooking seafood from the Vineyard for family and friends, and is remembered for whole baked, stuffed striper and Coquilles St.-Jacques made with Vineyard bay scallops.
During those years on the Vineyard Nancy and Don developed an interest in art and antiques, and spent many weekends combing antique stores throughout New England for furniture, art and other objects, many of which adorned their house in Vineyard Haven. Nancy was a member of the Antiques Club, which for many years met monthly at the homes of members, and had annual exhibits at the West Tisbury agricultural fair.
A bicentennial quilt at Vineyard Haven Library included Nancy’s contribution of the Crowell House on William street in Vineyard Haven, the Bermudes family home from 1964 to 1990.
In 1980 she and Don retired and moved to Naples, Fla. with a small community of other Islanders, but returned to the Vineyard during the summers, and in 2000 she and Don finally moved back to the Vineyard year-round. In 2010, Don, her devoted husband of 56 years, died from complications due to Parkinson’s disease.
Nancy is survived by her three sons, Ralph (Skip) Bermudes, who lives in Florida; David Bermudes and his wife Nancy, who live in California with their son Ari and their daughter Alexandra (Lexi); and Scott Bermudes and his wife Cynthia, who live in West Tisbury with their two daughters, Paris and Anais. She was preceded in death by her husband, Don, and brother Robert Whitmore.
Donations may be made in her memory to Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, 111 Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568, or The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Church Street Station, P.O. Box 780, New York, New York 10008-0780.
