Lucy Hackney, a longtime Island resident whose family legacy was tied directly to the early days of the civil rights movement, died Friday morning at her home in Vineyard Haven following a prolonged period of declining health. She was 81.

Mrs. Hackney was the daughter of Clifford and Virginia Foster Durr, who were both activists during the nascent years of the civil rights movement in the 1950s. Her father was one of the attorneys who helped Rosa Parks make bail after she was arrested for refusing to leave her seat on a Montgomery bus. Her mother later wrote an autobiography recounting in part the turmoil of the late 1950s.

Her uncle, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, took part in the Brown versus the Board of Education decision to end racial segregation in public schools.

Mrs. Hackney (right) and her friend Rose Styron during a 2008 Gazette interview.

Jaxon White

Mrs. Hackney (right) and her friend Rose Styron during a 2008 Gazette interview.

Jaxon White

Rosa Parks, a family friend and talented seamstress, helped with the alterations on Lucy Hackney’s wedding dress.

“She was always willing to [live] the dream and the equality of the life she always wanted,” Mrs. Hackney said, describing Rosa Parks during a 2015 appearance as guest speaker at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Vineyard Haven.

Lucy Durr grew up in Montgomery, Ala. When she was a junior in high school she was introduced to Sheldon Hackney at a party. He was a junior in college. It was the beginning of a long courtship that led to a loving marriage that lasted for 56 years. They had three children.

Mr. Hackney, a noted historian of the American South and retired president of the University of Pennsylvania, died in 2013, some years after the Hackneys had moved to the Vineyard full time.

“It’s as though they had their own unique glue that kept them together,” Tess Bramhall, a West Tisbury resident and longtime close friend, told Charlayne Hunter Gault for a 2013 Gazette interview. “Even when they came to our house for dinner parties, Lucy would always sit next to Sheldon. There was never a space between them.”

Lucy had left college to marry Sheldon, but while her husband was in the early years of his career at Princeton University, with three children at home, she returned to school to earn her bachelor’s degree and a law degree.

She later also worked at the Children’s Defense fund and founded the Pennsylvania Partnership for Children, a broad-based advocacy center for children.

Bright, vivacious and a fierce competitor at tennis, Mrs. Hackney contributed broadly to the Vineyard community.

Among other things she was strong supporter of Camp Jabberwocky where daughter Virginia Hackney had been a camper. Virginia died in 2007 at age 49.

A son Fain Hackney and daughter Elizabeth McBride survive her.

Funeral services will be held at a future date to be announced.

Donations in her memory can be made to Camp Jabberwocky, P.O. Box 1357, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568, Hospice of Martha’s Vineyard, P.O. Box 1748, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568, or the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, P.O. Box 1310, Edgartown, MA 02539.

Arrangements are under the care of the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home, Edgartown Road, Oak Bluffs.