Whistler, Vera (Potter) 92, of Needham, died on October 23 following a fall that proved fatal.
Born in 1930, she spent much of her youth on Strong Island in Pleasant Bay, Chatham. Following her graduation from The Masters School, she worked for several years at the Angell Memorial Animal Hospital in Boston and for shorter periods at Polaroid, Baird Associates and the Buckingham School.
An avid horsewoman, she enjoyed riding the trails in Dover and riding with the Norfolk Hunt Club. She married Ross Whistler in 1952. They lived in Cambridge for a year, then moved to a rental apartment in Dover. In 1955 they purchased a cottage on a 7.5-acre woodland lot in Dover, where she devoted her time to homemaking for her husband, two sons, four basset hounds, a small donkey and an itinerant flock of turkeys that loved our dust bath.
She loved music, played the harmonica, organ, piano and guitar and sang in the Dover Church choir. She enjoyed walking the woodland trails of Dover and Natick. Following her husband's retirement, they enjoyed traveling the seaboard countries of northern Europe from France to northern Russia.
After 57 years in Dover, she and her husband moved to the North Hill retirement community in Needham. She is survived by her husband and her son Peter. She was predeceased by her sister Penelope Nettles and her son Timothy. Services will be private.