Marie L. Boylan an educator for over 50 years and lifelong Red Sox fan, of Jamaica Plain, died October 11, 2009 at the age of 102. She was the beloved daughter of the late Thomas H. and Eleanor F. (Carey) Boylan.
A dedicated educator, she started her career in 1925 at the age of 18 and retired in 1976 after 51 years with the Boston Public Schools. Marie began teaching elementary school in Dorchester and Mattapan, moving on as a principal at Columbia Point before becoming a supervisor for elementary education for the BPS.
During her career she witnessed the passage of several generations of students many of whom arrived from Europe as immigrants before and after World War II having little knowledge of English. Besides providing classroom instruction she often found herself helping the students and their families integrate into American life. She was proud of her many former students who went on to become successful and highly regarded members of the community.
Born in the Egleston Square section of Boston in 1906 into a family of modest means, her father was a rope walker at the Charlestown Navy Yard, Marie attended public schools, Jamaica Plain High School and what was then known as Boston State Teachers College. She had a lifelong devotion to travel beginning in 1927 driving an old Model T Ford across the country from Boston to San Francisco. Before the arrival of cruise ships she spent many summer holidays traveling on steamers and cargo ships throughout Latin America and the Orient. An avid reader she accumulated an extensive library of early popular classics.
She encouraged her students to never stop learning and followed her own advice. She went on to receive a B.Sc. (1950) and Masters in Education (1952) from Boston University. After her retirement from the Boston Schools, Marie continued to pass on her deep knowledge and love of teaching by giving courses at Boston State College as an assistant professor.
As a devoted Red Sox fan from childhood she cheered them on through their ups and downs, she celebrated their World Series Title in 1918 and was overjoyed to see them win again in 2004.
She remained quick witted and determined throughout her life and was still planning to dance on her 103rd birthday in December. At 97 she had reluctantly given up her independent lifestyle and her home and spent the last 5 years in the loving environment of the Sophia Snow House reminiscing over a long and full life of teaching, travelling and learning.
She was the devoted sister of the late James F. Boylan and Catherine I.(Boylan) Shea, dear aunt of Dennis Shea and James Boylan and their families and loving cousin of Ellen (Carey) Savage.
A Memorial Mass will be held 10:00 am Saturday November 7th at Holy Name Church, 1689 Centre Street, West Roxbury. Donations in Marie’s memory may be made to “Sophia Snow House” - Respite Care Fund, 1215 Centre Street, West Roxbury Ma. 02132.
(Article from the West Roxbury Transcript)
100 years of crystal-clear recollections
By Jessica M. Smith
Roslindale -
Marie Boylan is eager to share her memories of a lifetime in Boston — all 100 years of them.
Boylan, a former teacher whose age entered the triple digits in December, is a resident of the Sophia Snow House in Roslindale. She’s made her home at the assisted-living facility on Centre Street for the past five years and said she’s slowed down only a little.
She still watches her favorite programs that include the Red Sox, Patriots, “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy.” But she concedes that the NBA isn’t what it once was.
“Basketball isn’t what it used to be when you go back to the Larry Bird days,” said Boylan, who also keeps her mind active with word games and puzzles.
A career educator, Boylan retired from Boston Public Schools in 1976 after a 51-year career that included teaching elementary school in Dorchester and Mattapan and serving as an assistant principal at the Columbia Point project school. She also taught new teachers how to conduct their classes and one of those educators that she met in the 1950s also resides at Snow Place.
Teaching, for Boylan, was a career choice that prevented her from marrying.
“I started teaching in 1925. If you married, you had to resign and the men had nothing to offer and couldn’t support you,” said Boylan, who skipped two grades when she was a student.
Since her days at the head of the class, Boylan said that schools have changed. When she taught in Dorchester and Mattapan, her pupils were predominately Jewish and her care for them extended outside the classroom.
Once she took a young student named Maurice to the dentist to have teeth pulled when his mother couldn’t bear to witness the painful procedure.
“We were in an office on the first floor of a building on Blue Hill Avenue. It was me holding his two hands and the dentist sitting on his feet,” said Boylan.
She’s also noticed that students’ demeanors seem to have changed.
“Now if they don’t like you, they shoot you or stab you,” said Boylan with amazement.
Compensation has also increased in the past 80 years.
When Boylan was first hired at age 18, there was a shortage of teachers and she earned $98 per month for her services. About $60 went to her mother for living expenses, and the rest was hers to keep. The first thing did with her newfound wealth was to buy a pair of high-heeled shoes. While that pair is long gone, she still wears heels and hopes her shoes don’t get too tattered.
“If they get too worn, they’ll make me get a pair of white sneakers,” said Boylan, who shuffles around in her heels with the help of a walker.
Boylan said she never minded giving her mother, Eleanor, her wages, and added that her mother was a great household manager and popular with their neighbors.
“If you ever have anything wrong, people would say ‘go see Nellie Boylan’,” she said of her mother, who was a fixture on their street.
During the Spanish influenza epidemic, which lasted from 1918 until 1920, Boylan recalled how her mother helped their flu-stricken next-door neighbor deliver a baby.
“The mother was in labor and there was no way to find a doctor. The father begged my mother to help deliver the baby,” said Boylan. The mother died, but the baby survived and the family moved away shortly after. Boylan wished she knew their fate.
Unlike many stricken by the deadly flu, Boylan said that she and her siblings, Catherine Irene and James Francis, “didn’t seem to be too susceptible,” to illness. And her only memory of being sick was when she turned yellow in third grade.
“It was probably hepatitis A,” said Boylan, who walked with her mother to the doctor and was told she could only have malted milk for the next week.
“Even if I smell malted milk now, I get sick. My grandmother would offer me crumbs,” said Boylan who recovered after seven days.
Her longevity seems to come from that grandmother, her father’s mother, Lacey, who passed away in 1915 at age 86. Her brother, James, died only weeks ago at age 97. She also attributes her long life to good nutrition despite coming from a working-class family.
“We always had good food and my mother was a good cook. There were fresh vegetables from when people came with wagons and the meat in those days was much better quality,” said Boylan, whose uncle got around town with a horse and wagon.
Although fresh produce in Boston came by wagon and Breck’s at Faneuil Hall was once a great place to buy gardening supplies, Boylan said some of the freshest fruits she ever tasted were in South America a few years after the First World War.
Her memories of the conflict are vivid and she still recalls the day her father, Thomas Henry, went to register for the draft.
“We all went with him. We were anxious to see if they were going to take him,” said Boylan, adding that her dad was spared from going overseas because he was supporting a family that included three children.
Although Boylan’s father didn’t serve in the military during a war, her brother, Jim, was in the Army during World War II. A great map-reader, she said, Jim was given the task of driving officers around.
Years after World War I, she said, she cruised around South America on an oil tanker where she met pilots who served in the war — this in 1920 after driving cross country to California in a model T Ford and needing to find a way home.
Her journey, which was aboard a Grace Line freighter, took two weeks and was the cheapest way of getting back to Boston. It was not the last time she cruised through the Panama Canal. Boylan took many vacations there and once brought her nephew, Dennis, along on the economical trips.
When the Great Depression struck, Boylan said the lack of economic opportunities didn’t make much of a difference to her.
“We never had any money, so it didn’t change things very much,” said Boylan, who added that it was a time that doctors readily accepted $14 a week and people were killing themselves over their financial losses.
An avid reader, Boylan says she remembers having an early copy of “Anne of Green Gables” and a “big book” called “Teddy B. and Teddy G,” which was about the Roosevelt brothers.
Her ability to read also came in handy when she cast her first vote at age 18, shortly after women were allowed to voice their opinions at the polls.
“I had to read big political articles to show I could read. I just read, that’s all,” said Boylan.