LOWELL--Agnes Burns Meehan, a member of a well-known Belvidere family, died at Sunny Acres Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on May 7, 2008. She was married to the late Joseph D. Meehan who died in 1966. She was born in Lowell on July 13, 1905, and was the daughter of the late James and Agnes (Delaney) Burns.
Mrs. Meehan was a graduate of the Immaculate Conception Grammar School, and Lowell High School. She pursued her studies at Lowell Normal School (now UMass Lowell) and graduated in 1924. She began her teaching career substituting at various schools in the Lowell Public School System and in 1928, she was assigned to the Riverside School as a seventh grade teacher where she taught until her marriage in 1936, at which point, she was forced to resign from the system since the law prohibited married women from teaching.
Subsequently, she accepted a seventh grade teaching position at the Immaculate Conception School under the auspices of the Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart. In 1954, in the midst of her ten-year teaching career at the Immaculate Conception, Mrs. Meehan became one of the few women of her time to pursue a college degree. In 1958, she completed her degree and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Education degree from the ‘State Teachers College at Lowell.’
In the late 1950s, the Lowell School Committee abolished the discriminatory law that forbade married women from teaching, and implemented a teacher qualification exam. In 1960 at the age of 55, Mrs. Meehan passed the exam and returned to the Lowell School System, accepting a position as a 9th grade English teacher at the Moody Junior High School.
Under the principalships of the late D. Murray Cummings and James F. Sullivan, she spent fifteen wonderful years at the Moody School, teaching English to over one thousand 9th grade students. Mrs. Meehan retired in 1975 when she reached the mandatory retirement age of seventy.
She often recalled her objectives as a Lowell school educator: “We were to motivate students to work to the best of their ability and to instill a desire and joy for learning. Teaching is a very satisfactory profession if you love children and have an interest in their future.” Mrs. Meehan was proud to note that many of her former students went on to become doctors, lawyers, priests, nuns, postal workers, firefighters, police officers, nurses, teachers, business people, and parents.
Immediately after retirement, Mrs. Meehan became affiliated with the Spindle City Lowell Chapter #2694 of the AARP and served as its first secretary for many years. She was a Charter Member of the organization and was a former member of its Board of Directors.
Mrs. Meehan was a communicant of the Immaculate Conception Church and held membership in the Holy Rosary Sodality of that parish. She was also a member of the League of Catholic Women, the Ladies of Saint John’s Hospital (Saints Memorial Auxiliary), and the Friends of Merrimack College. Also, she was a member of the National Retired Teachers Association, the Retired Educators Association of (North Middlesex Chapter), the University of Massachusetts Lowell Alumni, and the Retired State, County, and Municipal Employees Association.
In November 2007 Mrs. Meehan was honored as Lowell High School’s oldest living graduate (Class of 1922) during the School’s celebration of its 175th Anniversary. During the past few years Mrs. Meehan resided at Sunny Acres Nursing and Rehabilitation Center where she considered the residence her second home and the nurses and caregivers another part of her family.
She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Joseph D. and Nancy (Mellen) Meehan of Lowell; granddaughter Emily K. Meehan and her husband Matthew W. Miller of Exeter, NH; great-granddaughter Delaney Grace Miller of Exeter, NH; niece Ann L. Nancy Beane and her husband Thomas Beane of Lowell and niece Maureen DiPalma of Tewksbury; her grandnephews Thomas Beane Jr. and his wife Deborah of Billerica, Robert Beane and his wife Jeanne of Hingham, and Lawrence Beane and his wife Tracy of Lowell; sister-in-law, Mrs. John B. (Mildred Dawson) Burns of Chelmsford, as well as other nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.
Mrs. Meehan was the sister of the late James D. Burns, John B. Burns, Florence P. (Burns) Gallagher, H. Marion (Burns) Hayes and Frances E. (Burns) Hoar.
Friends may call from 4 to 8 PM on Monday, May 12th at the MAHONEY FUNERAL HOME, 187 Nesmith Street, (Rte. 38). Her Funeral Mass to be offered on Tuesday, May 13th at 11 AM at the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CHURCH. Burial in St. Patrick Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to the Lowell High School Scholarship Fund; 50 Father Morissette Boulevard; Lowell, MA 01852.