CO-FOUNDER of the Longshoreman’s Museum, Ventnor, and talented artist, Rosemary Ann Blake, has died aged 80.
She was born in Hampton, Surrey, in 1937 but she regularly came to the Island during school holidays to visit her aunt in Ventnor.
It was at Ventnor Beach where she met her husband, Jim Blake, who was working as a longshoreman.
They were married at Ventnor Congregational Church in 1958, and the couple then moved to Ventnor Esplanade.
In the Eighties, they opened the Longshoreman’s Museum and shop.
Mrs Blake enjoyed working at the museum, and worked in the shop until last year.
She and her husband lived at Steephill Cove for over 50 years and she sold her paintings and held art classes in a garden studio built by her husband.
The couple had three children; Robert, Geoffery and Sophie.
Mrs Blake enjoyed spending time with her six grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
She was also a keen gardener, and enjoyed going on holiday to Egypt and Italy with her painting friends.
She died at the Earl Mountbatten Hospice, with family by her side, on July 28.
Her funeral will be on August 22 at St Catherine’s Church at noon, and the horse-drawn hearse will leave Blake’s Beach Office, at 11am.