Virginia (Ginny) Jones, whose roots in West Tisbury were as strong and deep as her love for the town and for a way of life on the Vineyard she feared was disappearing, died on Nov. 13. She was 82.

Her daughter Caitlin Jones said her mother died at home.

“Right up to the end she was troubleshooting Island problems,” her daughter said. “That was her blood and bones and default mode — to address the problems of the Island. At one point, on the last night, she got up and yelled ‘America needs clean water!’”

Ms. Jones’s Island roots date back for more than a century. She grew up in West Tisbury, in what is now Howes House.

“She was a rare individual and we are a lesser town without her,” said Arnie Fischer of his longtime friend, neighbor and former babysitter. “She had a passion for the Island, especially West Tisbury and for Tisbury Great Pond. I think a lot of people might describe her as a curmudgeon but all those same people loved her. Her heart was in the right place.”

Ms. Jones was always clear-eyed about the issues the Island faced, not just hearkening back to a supposed ‘good old days’.

“The Island was not a perfect place back when I grew up, and it still isn’t perfect,” she said in an interview with the Gazette in 2023.

After graduating from high school on the Island, she moved to Connecticut to work as a researcher at Mystic Seaport Museum. She returned to the Vineyard in 1985 and worked at Gannon & Benjamin Marine Railway for nearly three decades.

“She worked for us for close to 30 years,” said Nat Benjamin, co-owner of Gannon & Benjamin. “She was, as everyone knew, a force to be reckoned with. Determined, spicy, persistent but above all she really loved Martha’s Vineyard, the environment, the people. She was a strong advocate for the Island and a powerful voice for conservation.”

From her perch at Gannon & Benjamin, Ms. Jones had a front row seat to explore her passion for boating, the sea and the waterfront community, always wary of anyone she did not feel lived up to the pillars of tradition, craft and good character.

“She was known to screen our customers and if she didn’t like them, well, they kind of went away,” Mr. Benjamin said.

As a true Islander, she was equally at home on land and sea, often setting off on sailing adventures around the world.

“She was a hell of sailor,” Mr. Benjamin said. “She got around on the water and was wonderful in the galley, a great cook. She never got seasick, and always produced fine meals for the crew in a pitching, tumbling galley.”

In the 2023 Gazette interview Ms. Jones described working as a cook on her son’s boat, sailing from Hawaii to Washington in 2004.

“It was 21 days, and that was about 10 days too many for mom,” she said. “I am happy to say that I will never have to cook on a boat again.”

In 2014, Ms. Jones opened Fo’c’sle Locker in Menemsha, a used bookstore that specialized in maritime history. For years she wrote an annual Christmas column for the Gazette, recommending books about boating, the more arcane the better. The articles were always deep in their knowledge about the craft of boating and writing. They could be enjoyed by everyone from the experienced mariner to the lazy landlubber, more apt to dream about such a life than experience it as Ms. Jones did.

“Comfortable, sea kindly, fast and able vessels, and those who sail on or write about them are what interests me,” she said about her preferred books.

Her recommendations often began with a gentle nudge: “When winter approaches and the nights are long I urge you to settle down in a comfortable chair with a cup of tea (or something stronger) to read one of these books. You won’t be disappointed, As always, my choices focus on the traditional working watercraft and classic yachts. I have no interest whatsoever in single-handed circumnavigations or in adrenaline fueled races on ever more technically sophisticated (and costly) boats.”

On land, Ms. Jones was a fierce advocate for the environment, from the fields to the ponds, the forests to the sea. For many years, she served on the West Tisbury planning board, working hard to protect the Island from over-development.

West Tisbury select board member Cynthia Mitchell, remembered Ms. Jones as someone who cared deeply.

“Ginny was a true original, never holding back, always giving to the Island and especially West Tisbury,” Ms. Mitchell said. “We will very much miss her curmudgeonly loving spirit.”

Katie Carroll, co-owner of Menemsha Texaco, echoed this theme. “She was a tad crotchety, a tad outspoken, a bit crusty around the edges and even a tad harsh at times,” Ms. Carroll said. “It didn’t take long for me to realize how much I appreciated our candid conversations and her, often extreme, honesty. We have lost a good one, a true advocate of the land, sea, people and way of life.”

Eleanor Neubert, who had known Ms. Jones from birth, said she was an early advocate for the Island’s farmers, attending meetings of the Agricultural Society in the 1970s and 1980s and making suggestions.

“She would come to the meetings, sitting on the bench, most likely knitting and tell us we needed to expand to help the local farmers,” Ms. Neubert said. “It took a bit for everyone to come around but she was so right.”

Ms. Neubert also described a more recent initiative Ms. Jones had undertaken.

“She was looking around for a project and began planting daffodils in the West Tisbury cemetery on the graves of local kids who had died,” Ms. Neubert said. “She would visit the graves and plant bulbs. I’m not sure how many people know this.”

Upon closing up shop at Fo’c’sle Locker, Ms. Jones spoke about her fears for the future of the Island, and also her continued determination to stem the tide of what she saw as a vanishing way of life.

“What will Ginny do next? Continue to work to slow down the slow but insidious leaks of Island values and culture, and the fast erosion of our shores due to rising seas,” Ms. Jones said. “May we flourish and persist in short circuiting those who wish only to line their own pockets and destroy.”

Ms. Jones was laid to rest in a green burial service.