Ann Charnley, a former first aid worker in Vietnam and an important voice for women’s rights in the ‘70s and ‘80s, died in May at the age of 89.

Ann lived for the last 14 years on the Vineyard. She was a native of Washington D.C., where she stewarded major women’s rights legislative victories through Congress as executive director of the Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues.

Under her leadership, the caucus was the major driver behind watershed amendments in 1978 to Title IX that finally forced schools and colleges to invest more equitably in girls’ and women’s athletics. She also rallied the necessary bipartisan support in Congress for passage of the Privacy Protection for Rape Victims Act of 1978 and the Uniformed Services Former Spouses’ Protection Act of 1982. These key federal protections helped to prevent divorced military wives and their children from slipping into poverty and barred discussion of a rape victim’s past sexual history in trials against their accusers.

In 1971, she began vacationing on the Vineyard in Chilmark with her first husband, Terence Smith, a former New York Times correspondent. The couple, who had two children, divorced in 1983.

A long-time resident of Chevy Chase, Md., she married Peter Meleney in 1991.

While still living in Chevy Chase, Ann and Peter spent every summer at their house in East Chop and moved permanently to the Island in 2011. She loved the peace and quiet of the Island, views of the ocean, family picnics on the beach at Lake Tashmoo and watching from her back porch her children and grandchildren play croquet in the historic Prospect Park at the top of East Chop bluff.

In her final years, her dogs, Cleo and Maxie, were a great comfort to her although they refused to sleep in bed with her.

A graduate of George Washington University with a bachelor’s in history, she retained a life-long love of discipline, researching how the Revolutionary War affected the Vineyard and New England, in particular.

She held a master’s in education from American University, taught at The Lab School in Washington and at elementary and high schools in suburban Maryland. Towards the end of her career, she was the historical researcher behind the best-selling books: Founding Mothers and Ladies of Liberty, authored by the late Washington journalist, Cokie Roberts.

At the same time, she kept up continued support of oppressed people, participating in Black Lives Matters and the Women’s marches, and speaking out for the victims of the conflict in Gaza.

She served on the education committee of the Martha’s Vineyard Diversity Coalition and the justice committee of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Martha’s Vineyard.

She and her husband were members of the East Chop Beach and East Chop Tennis clubs. In her later years, she became very interested in environmental sustainability and volunteered with her husband as part of the Oak Bluffs Tree Stewards.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by her daughter Elizabeth Smith and son-in-law, Gurvinder Shergill of Chevy Chase, Md.; her son Christopher Smith and daughter-in-law Kerri Smith of Lahaina, Hawaii; granddaughters, Scout Smith, Saylor Smith and Neva Shergill; her sister, Joan Charnley Rentzel of Panama Beach City, Fla.; sister-in-law, Phyllis Charnley of Big Canoe, Ga.

Her brother, Harry Charnley, also formerly of Big Canoe, died just nine days before her.

Asked once to sum up her life, Ann pointed to her family and her values. She lived with elegance, insight and courage — and believed in using her voice, and her vote, to make the world better for the next generation of women.