1941-2017

Summer 2007: Mary sits out on her stoop on a couple of worn-out cushions. The steps are painted old-style red, and 10 Greenwich Park is looking worn in general, but Mary is the same as she's always been, letting it all hang out, holding forth, telling stories of who's related to who and what went on in local hot spots years ago. She doesn't like to be interrupted for clarification. Most of her stories involve old South Enders: Cookie, Lowell Davidson, Jack Crump (father and son), Calvin McLean, Bill Carrington. "It was grand around here," she says of hairdresser Gene Marsman. "It was glamour. You wouldn't come out the door at 6 o'clock if you weren't dressed."

Some of those old South Enders are still around. Mary says they come up to her on the street: "Do you know me?" "Of course, I know you! I know what family you're from."

Mary was born on Concord Square in 1941. Her family was from the South. She grew up one of the local kids who participated in programs at 48 Rutland Street. Negative experiences became badges of honor. She was kicked out of Girls' High School. Why? "For being myself, I guess."

In 1966 she was one of the incorporators of the South End Neighborhood Action Program or SNAP, going to work for ABCD/SNAP in 1972. She worked for Just-A-Start and in the summer of 1968 with 47 high school and college students in a BRA program in which students built and repaired South End playgrounds. Most of these programs were headquartered on W. Brookline St., including the Store Front Learning Center, with which she was also involved. There were so many non-profits on that block that Mary used to laugh, "Money was coming down the Pike."

Mary was good to me. She knew of my interest in South End history and she supplied me with plenty. She'd call me up and say she had something to show me and when I went to get it I needed a shopping cart to bring it all home.

There's a FOR SALE sign on the 10 Greenwich Park fence. A P&S has been signed, and the closing is supposed to take place August 30. Mary plans to move to Santa Fe where she once lived and where, on June 16, 2017, she died at age 75.