Lois “Bisi” Starkey (MacMurray) of Lexington, Mass., formerly of Brookline, Mass., and a lifelong summer resident of Norfolk, died on Nov. 5 from complications from a recent stroke.

Bisi was born in 1923 to Lois Goodnow MacMurray and John V. A. MacMurray, who served as a diplomat in the U.S. foreign service between 1907 and 1944. Her father’s diplomatic career allowed Bisi to experience life in several foreign countries, including China, Latvia and Turkey. A graduate of Madeira School and Bryn Mawr College, she met her future husband of 46 years, the late Dr. George W. B. Starkey, while she was a volunteer at the Home for Little Wanderers in Boston and George was attending Harvard Medical School. They wed in 1944, and after his service in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in Europe during World War II, they lived in New York and London while he pursued advanced surgical training. After returning to the Boston area, they raised their three children, first in Wellesley and later in Brookline. Bisi developed numerous enduring friendships as a long-time member of several clubs and a volunteer at WBZ Call For Action. An avid gardener and tennis player, she also enjoyed travel, fine arts, opera, PBS and NPR. 

For many years Bisi was a lecturer at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and later the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and she took special pleasure in introducing schoolchildren to the world of art. She received a master’s degree in art history from the Harvard Extension School, for which her thesis was a curated collection of photographs taken by her father while serving in China, some of which were also the subject of a lecture and exhibit at the Norfolk Library in 2015. 

Bisi had a deep attachment to the Norfolk community. She and her family first spent summers here with her maternal grandparents, Elizabeth Lyall and Frank J. Goodnow, at their summer house atop a hill west of Litchfield Road. In 1935 her parents built the Greenshore camp on Doolittle Lake, which Bisi and George afterward came to own and where she relished engaging with her family and friends. She was a board member of the Doolittle Lake Company and a member of the Norfolk Country Club. She particularly enjoyed attending concerts at the Yale Music School and Tanglewood.

Bisi is survived by her three children, Joan S. Palmer and her husband, Ray, of Orange, VA and their sons, Christopher and Tony; Hugh V. A. Starkey of Brookline and his children, Madeleine, Natalie and Miles; and Alison Starkey and her husband, Matt Morozovsky, of Portland, Or.; and by many nieces, nephews and other extended family. In addition to her beloved George, Bisi was predeceased by her sister, Joan MacM. James, and brother, Dr. Frank G. MacMurray.

A memorial celebration of Bisi’s life in Norfolk will be planned for the summer.