Cary Walker Luckey Scheller died at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital on March 10. She was 97.

She was born at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., on Dec. 24, 1910, to Edith Colby Carey and Lieut. Meriwether Lewis Walker of the U.S. Army.

At the end of his Army career, the Walkers lived in Panama. From 1924 to 1928, then-General Walker was appointed governor of the Panama Canal Zone, after which he was posted in Boston as commander of the 18th Army Brigade before retiring to the Vineyard in 1932.

Cary Walker graduated in the class of 1930 from Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Conn., where she was head of the athletic association and captain of the mink team.

In 1933, she married Lieut. Robert Burneston Luckey of the U.S. Marine Corps in Vineyard Haven. The wedding took place at the Mill House built by her grandparents, U.S. Army General Asa Bacon Carey and Laura Colby Carey, a lively event enhanced no doubt by quantities of bathtub rum produced by her father.

The Luckeys were then stationed at Fort Sill, Okla., before being ordered to Peking, China, where Lieutenant Luckey was attached to the U.S. Embassy and where their first child, Laura Colby, was born in 1937. On their return from China, they bought the Hough house, which they moved from Indian Hill to Lambert’s Cove.

Later they were stationed in Quantico, Va., where their son Thomas Walker was born in 1940. During the war years, the family lived on the Vineyard.

Their third child, William Councilman, was born in 1951 in Bethesda, Md., when General Luckey was in command of the Marine Corps Barracks, Washington, D.C. In 1960, Lieut. General Luckey took over command of the Fleet Marine Force Atlantic before retiring to Lambert’s Cove in 1963. General Luckey died in 1974.

In 1977, Cary Luckey married Dr. George Scheller. After his death in 1984, she continued to live in Lambert’s Cove for the rest of her life. A verse by Rachael Field, framed and hung near the front door of her home, speaks of her love of the Vineyard.

If ever you’ve lived on an Island

You’ll never be quite the same.

You may look as you looked the day before

And go by the same old name,

You may walk about the city streets

Or sit at home and sew,

But you’ll see blue water and wheeling gulls

Wherever your feet may go.

Cary Luckey Scheller was one of the kindest, most generous people in the world. She was always an active volunteer in hospitals wherever she lived, including the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, and was also an avid tennis player and expert golfer, winning numerous impressive trophies.

Gracky, as she was affectionately known by her family and close friends, felt a deep and lifelong connection to the Vineyard and to those many people that filled her daily life with friendship, companionship, and love. They brought her great joy. She treasured a good swim and a warm fire, a nice drink, and a fine dinner with family and friends. She always had a great smile and a warm “hello” for any new arrivals. She loved clamming and mussel gathering expeditions as well as long walks with her fabulous dog, Tiga, in all parts of this beautiful Island. She held fast to her friends, both young and old, and brought a tremendous amount of love, style and spirit to everyone who knew her. We have all been blessed and fortunate to have spent a part of her 97 years here with her. She will be greatly missed.

Cary Scheller is survived by her three children, Laura, Thomas and William; seven grandchildren, Owen Luckey, Spencer Luckey, Anna Luckey, Cary Luckey, Kit Luckey, Walker Luckey and Benjamin Luckey; and three great-grandchildren, Ella and Lucy Peterson and Clyde Luckey. 

There will be a service at Grace Episcopal Church in Vineyard Haven on Sunday, April 12 at 4 p.m. after which everyone is invited to Cary Scheller’s House in Lambert’s Cove. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital.