Edith C. McIntyre, 89, of New Bedford and Mattapoisett passed away Monday, December 15, 2008 at St. Luke's Hospital with family members at her side. Edith was born July 11, 1919 in Arlington, MA, the daughter of the late Edward K. and Margaret A. (Meehan) McIntyre.
Edith graduated from New Bedford High School, class of 1936 and was immediately employed as a book keeper for Sullivan-Foster Inc. She remained with the company for 44 years retiring as office manager.
She was a communicant of Holy Name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish.
Edith enjoyed summers in Mattapoisett for over 50 years and was an active member of the Crescent Beach Improvement Association. She traveled extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, many European countries, Australia and New Zealand.
Edith was a member of the QUOTA club and participated in many of their fund raisers for the hearing impaired.
She is survived by her sister, Helen M. McIntyre of New Bedford; many nieces and nephews and their families.
Edith was predeceased by two brothers, Mark H. McIntyre and Edward K. McIntyre and one sister, Mary F. Muldoon.
Funeral from the Saunders-Dwyer Home for Funerals, 495 Park St., New Bedford Friday, December 19th at 9 AM. Funeral Mass at Holy Name of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church at 10 AM. Burial will follow in St. Mary's Cemetery. Visiting hours will be on Thursday, December 18th from 4-8 PM.
EULOGY GIVEN FOR EDITH C. MCINTYRE BY MARGARET-MARY SUNDIN AT THE FUNERAL MASS ON DECEMBER 19, 2008
I am Margaret-Mary McIntyre Sundin. Edith Cecilia McIntyre was an awesome aunt and godmother, but she was much more than that. With my dear Aunt Helen, she formed a cohesive whole that was more than the sum of its parts. In our family, you never heard one of them mentioned separately. It was always “Helen and Edith”, “Edith and Helen” or my Dad’s constant “the girls.”
When Aunt Edith was born in 1919, the name Edith was popular name for girls, although she was named for Nanna McIntyre’s sister, Aunt Edith Susan Meehan Alcarez. The popularity of the name Edith is reflected in the famous poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Children’s Hour.” I know you all memorized it in grammar school and we could probably recite it together, “Between the dark and the daylight……”
My favorite part was always, “From my study I see in the lamplight, Descending the broad hall stair, Grave Alice, laughing Allegra and Edith with the golden hair.”
Aunt Edith did have golden hair, when she was young it was almost white. She was the baby of the family with her brothers, Mark and Ted, and sisters, Mary and Helen. She was an active Girl Scout and a liberated woman who could sew, type a million words a minute, balance check books, calculate taxes, file financial reports and swing a hammer as well as any man.
The first and only time I heard Aunt Edith say a bad word was when she was working at her Crescent Beach cottage. She loudly said a single bad word. I’d heard much worse in the Holy Family schoolyard, but I was still shocked that she even knew a bad word. I should explain that she had just hit her finger with the hammer. I’m sure that none of us want to be put to that test!
In recognition of her mathematical ability, Aunt Edith was hired as a book keeper, as soon as she graduated from high school, which was quite an accomplishment at the height of the Depression. She stayed on the job and became the office manager at Sullivan-Foster, a prominent local building contractor. Whenever we drove around New Bedford or Fall River, Daddy would point out a handsome building, and say proudly, “Edie built that” or “that’s another one of Edie’s buildings.” We grew up thinking that Aunt Edith could do anything.
Aunt Edith was fearless and fun-loving. She taught us how to ice skate at Tabor Academy in Marion. When Bobby was little, she climbed with him up to the top of the highest dunes on Cape Cod. She went sailing with Joe and kayaking with Ted. She went on a Goat Island excursion with Carol and Pam and you should have seen her with a hula hoop. She loved going to Chrissy’s parties, where she might dress up in a Halloween costume, hold a baby goat, ride a pony or be photographed by the Standard Times on New Year’s Eve. When Mark received his diploma, along with several hundred of his classmates at the University of Massachusetts, he was surprised to see that Aunt Edith had proudly worked her way through the whole crowd down to the stage so that she could take a photo of him receiving his diploma.
How many wonderful memories we have of Aunt Edith at the cottage on Crescent Beach! Aunt Edith and her friend Olive built adjoining cottages and, invited or not, our family spent every Sunday at the beach. We would get dressed in our bathing suits and wait in car in the driveway for the trip down Route Six. After an afternoon of swimming, there would be a wonderful cookout, followed by cake, coffee and watermelon. Aunt Edith always put the watermelon under the cottage to keep it cool. I remember when Bobby asked her if that was where watermelons came from. She was just glad that he didn’t ask her where babies came from!
We really enjoyed being at Aunt Edith’s cottage. One summer Olive was going to be out of town, so she rented out her cottage next door for a month. At the end of the lease, the renter advised Olive that he would never be back. The reason? He jerked his thumb at Aunt Edith’s cottage and said, “because of them and their forty relatives!”
Each summer, she and Aunt Helen would take the boys or the girls for a weekend. We’d enjoy a delicious breakfast of blueberry pancakes with Nanna McIntyre. We’d go to band concerts in Marion, bowling at the Cathay Temple, quahogging at the beach and golf at the driving range on Route Six. We’d pick blueberries, hike to Piano Rock or Ned’s Point, explore the woods by Mattapennio – there were a thousand exciting things to do. When Regina wanted to wrangle an invitation for the weekend, she would simply give Aunt Edith a gift of four handmade placemats. Let’s see, one for Nanna, one for Edith, one for Helen, and one for…. It always worked.
Joe remembers that after a hurricane one year, a large branch was left dangling from a tree overhanging the cottage. Aunt Edith didn’t like the looks of the branch and she and my father decided to use a little “persuasion” to bring it down. They rocked the branch gently at first, then back and forth with ever more rhythm and vigor, until the branch suddenly snapped off. Daddy and Aunt Edith were knocked off their feet and ended up on their sit-downs. We all laughed so hard that we fell down too.
Auth Edith did all of this and more, on tiny feet. After the age of six or seven, none of her nieces could even think about playing dress-up with Aunt Edith’s shoes. She loved to travel with Aunt Helen, their friend Molly Sullivan and their niece, our cousin, Frances Elizabeth Muldoon. We called them “The Gang of Four” and they went all over the world.
But first she traveled all over New England. Aunt Helen and Aunt Edith introduced us all to the world of culture, with concerts by the Greater New Bedford Symphony Orchestra and musicals, such as the “Sound of Music” at the Cape Cod Melody Tent. We visited all the historical sites around Boston and traveled to the White Mountains of New Hampshire to ride the snow train.
And you all know that Aunt Edith was always a big athletic supporter. She followed the sports careers of Tommy and Jimmy Muldoon and Ted, Mark and Joe McIntyre. She and Aunt Helen drove us to games in Lawrence and up to the old Boston Garden to see Holy Family play in the state finals.
Aunt Edith and Aunt Helen introduced all the girls to the excitement of retail shopping in downtown New Bedford and at the South Shore Plaza. Aunt Edith would give Regina some money and then help her pick out a Christmas gift for Mom.
Although we kept her pretty busy, Aunt Edith somehow found time to help hundreds of hearing impaired children through the Quota Club, a service organization for businesswomen. She helped out at Holy Name Church and worked as the treasurer on all of Joe’s campaigns.
Nanna, Aunt Helen and Aunt Edith are the foundation of so many family traditions and memories, such as the special breakfast parties after each of us made First Communion and eating turkey sandwiches while playing games on Christmas night. They each had a special place at the holiday table at our home on Parker Street, next to each other and next to Daddy.
They made Christmas a magical time for all of us. At their Christmas Eve visit, they would secretly leave many bags and pillow cases full of presents. The tags would say, “From 150”, because of their address at 150 Shawmut Avenue. That home was the backdrop for many family events, and its rooms were an enticing mystery for us, except for Regina. She was a born investigator!
We will never forget the many talent shows, when all the cousins, Peggy Ann and Kathy, Tommy, Jimmy, Frances Elizabeth and the rest of us would put on performances for the grown-ups. The pocket doors to the living room would open dramatically, and there would be dance recitals, theatrical performances and vocal interpretations that only a fond aunt could appreciate. You have to remember that it was not until Christopher Joseph came along that there was ever any talent in the McIntyre Family! On that stage at 150, Ted told his famous joke about the two grocery stores combining to form the new “Stop and P”. You don’t hear jokes like that anymore, but Aunt Edith would laugh every time.
These are just some of the stories about Aunt Edith. Remember that wonderful poem by Longfellow concerning “Edith with the golden hair”? It concludes with some beautiful lines that sum up how we all feel about Aunt Edith.
I have you fast in my fortress
And will not let you depart,
But put you down in the dungeon,
In the round tower of my heart.
And there I will keep you forever,
Yes, forever and a day.
Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,
And moulder in dust away!
We love you Aunt Edith, you will always live in God’s love and in our hearts.
The Children’s Hour
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1914
Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day’s occupations,
That is known as the Children’s Hour.
I hear in the chamber above me,
The patter of little feet,
The sound of a door that is opened,
And voices soft and sweet.
From my study I see in the lamplight,
Descending the broad hall stair,
Grave Alice, laughing Allegra
And Edith with golden hair.
A whisper and then a silence,
Yet I know by their merry eyes,
They are plotting and planning together,
To take me by surprise.
A sudden rush from the stair way,
A sudden raid from the hall,
By three doors left unguarded,
They enter my castle wall.
They climb up into my turret,
O’er the arms and back of my chair,
If I try to escape they surround me,
They seem to be everywhere.
They almost devour me with kisses,
Their arms about me entwine,
Till I think of the bishop of Bingen,
In his Mouse-tower on the Rhine.
Do you think, O blue-eyed banditti,
Because you have scaled the wall,
Such an old mustache as I am,
Is not a match for you all?
I have you fast in my fortress
And will not let you depart,
But put you down in the dungeon,
In the round tower of my heart.
And there I will keep you forever,
Yes, forever and a day.
Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,
And moulder in dust away!