The Life of Millie & Steve Murphy (1897-2010) - chronology of both
The Life of Millie and Steve Murphy
These notes are based on listening to Walter Rice and Millie Murphy chat about their lives and from asking Millie questions and from transcribing sections of DVD that Bill Jersey (Audrey’s brother) took at Walter’s 80th’ birthday party, from Helen Dube’s email, and from Michael Murphy’s and Cathy Eaton’s memories. I hope you will read this and add to it and make corrections and send me more stories and memories to include.
Much love, Cathy Eaton (November 27, 2011)
Burt G. and Ellen Smith were George and Mildred’s parents.
“George Earl Lord, was born on August 23, 1897 and died on June 14, 1988. I believe Aunt Mildred was born two years later. [Mildred was born December 8, 1899]. My father told me he came home from school and found his mother dead on the floor and his sister sitting by her side crying. He said they went to a neighbor and subsequently were sent to an orphanage in Boston. He fled the orphanage and lived on the streets until he was found. Subsequently, both he and Mildred were sent to Salem and lived with a family that owned a drugstore (he thought somewhere in South Salem). This family was of Polish descent.
The mother was kind to them, but the father beat them both when he drank. Thankfully they both were taken in by Lena Whittsley Adams and her husband on the farm in Georgetown, Massachusetts. They both went to school in Georgetown in what is now the Town Hall. George worked on the farm, leading the cows down to the nearby pond, etc. and Mildred worked in the house. They had a good healthy life there after all the previous misfortune.” (According to Helen Rice Dube, 2011)
Mildred Rice
73 Bromfield Road
Somerville, MA
Mildren Smith Lord – daughter of Burt G. and Ellen (Smith) born in Northampton, December 8, 1898.
Year 1899. Vol. 476. Page 39. No 375. Date of record Jan 20, 1899.
George E. Lord, died at 91. He lived on 7 Station Road In Salem, Massachusetts, and was a driver for the Ntional Biscuit Co before retiring in 1962. Born in Northampton, he was the son of the late Earl and Ellen (Smith) Lord. He was a member of American legion Post 23 in Salem. He was the husband of the late Catherine (Hennessey) Lord and the late Alice (Flynn) Lord. Daughter Helen and son-in-law Paul Dube of Peabody and three granddaughters, Paula M Dube, Suzanne H. Kelley of Lynfield and Kathryn LeGere of George town.
Audrey Doris Rice died on March 14, 2011. She attended Gordon Bible College where she met her husband Walter. Daughter Linda Rice Chase of Port Jefferson and two grandchildren Justin Adam Chase of New York City and Alexandra Laruen Chase of Boston, Massachusetts, and her son and daughter-in-law Kenneth Wayne Rice and Lorraine Rice of Belle Terre and New York City and four step-grandchildren, Stephen, Laura, Andrew, and Gregory Cooper.
Katherine Lord
Katherine F. “Rena” (Hennessey) Lord of 6 Oak Street, died Tuesday in Danvers. Born Nov. 10, 1894 in Salem and had resided here all her life. Attended St. James Parish. Survived by her husband George E. Lord, a daughter of Helen F. Dube of Salem, two brothers David V. Hennessey, and Philip A. Hennessey of Peabody.
In 1934 Stephen Murphy graduated from Somerville High School. He lived on 52 Webster Street. Under his high school picture, it said “Character – a nobleness that will continue.”
Millie and Steve Murphy went on their honeymoon to the Hotel Statler in NYC on Seventh Ave and 33rd Street and stayed in Room 1447. They were given by Joe Lowe Corporation tickets to see South Pacific for Monday, November 6, 1950 and Mr. Roberts on Tuesday , November 7. The tickets were from Mike Braff and Henry Montminney.
AT the time Millie was living at 38 Wood Street, Woburn, MA. Millie saved the ticket stubs. FF in the orchestra section. The tickets cost $6.00. First National in Portland, Maine sent a telegram saying “Peculiar Things happening in the bakery today dough don’t rise no hole in doughnuts and Virginia is smiling good luck.
George and Mildred (Smith) Lord
were born in Northampton, Massachusetts.
They were orphaned when George was about six and Mildred three. The Adams wanted to take George out of orphanage to work their farm. He refused to go without his sister.
They became the foster children of Nina (Gramma) Adams who adopted Anne Phyllis, who may have been the illegitimate daughter of Mr. Adams. Millie said she was a stuck up prude. They ran a dancing school and taught ballroom dancing.
Mildred and George went to school up to 5th grade.
Gramma Adams (Lena Whittlesey Adams)
Lena Whittlesey Adams and husband owned Dancing Studio in Boston and Salem for Ballroom Dancing. The larger studio burned in the great Salem Fire. They had house in Boston and house in Salem and summer home in Georgetown, MA.
Lena had a big library and she allowed Millie to read. Then she questioned her about what the book was about. Millie had to show that her hands were very clean. She made Millie give an apple she took from a tree back to the owner. Gramma said about Millie that she “was such a homely child” who was “thin and sickly.” She had to take a nap. She remembers a big picture o a lion above a big couch where she napped. She said about Gramma Adams, “She certainly was an experience.”
In the living room was a couch for naps with the painting of a massive ferocious lion. We had to say grace. Mr. Hasketll was her lover, and he was the gardener. There were three goats: Esmiralda, Sasprilla, and Susan. Two were for milking.
On Millie’s 16th birthday, Gramma Adams gave her a ring with a moon stone that Millie gave to Cathy Eaton. Millie remembers when the rabbit died. Gramma Adams said the lunch was chicken (not the rabbit), and they made gloves our of rabbit fur.
Gramma Adams read Shakespeare out loud to Walter and Millie. She read with inflection. She asked kids to tell her stories. She was very prim and proper. Gramma Adams made wood cuts out of plain pieces of wood. She made pastoral scenes and nature scenes. The front parlor was off limits to the kids. She painted a sea scape that was in a gilded frame. She wasn’t used to children.
On her property there were trees and a meadow. Up the road was a well house. Millie and her siblings went for two weeks in the summer. Mama, all the children, and Mimi. Dad came up on Friday night after it was dark. The boys stayed in a tent, and the girls, Mildred and Mimi stayed in the Well House. They washed outside. They loved to prime the pump.
The spring was 500 feet away. They had buckets on a stick, which they filled with water from the spring. When Millie saw a snake, she “hightailed” it out of there, screaming bloody murder. She still had to return to spring for water. “Galvanized pails at bottom of roof. Water spouts. Take turns.
Mr.Haskell took goats out, and he milked them. He squirted milk in the face of the cats. Goats lived in the garage. They had Couchin Bantams (hens and roosters, miniature and regular size.) There was a little cart that the goats pulled. Rides on the goats.
Dirt roads. Tennant house had barn.
Her adopted daughter, Phyllis, lived on Beacon Street and had a beautiful old Lasalle convertible. Millie said, “Mama helped raise her like an older sister. Phyllis came down once a year and picked us up in Charlestown. She picked up Roger (14), Millie, Walter, Evelyn, and Barbara (5). She had a Model T. Roger worked on the car. Go to Georgetown in Lasalle. Phyllis has a gentlemen caller.
George Earl Lord married Catherine Hennessey and later Alice Flynn.
His daughter Helen married Paul Dube. They had three daughters: Paula M, Suzanne H, and Kathryn (Kate) LeGere
George Lord married Aunt Rina. Millie remembers her making pie, and Steve insisting unable to resist helping her her crimp the pie. George lived in Salem, MA. He worked at cookie factory near North Station called National Biscuit. They had one child, Helen. George’s second wife was Alice. Millie remembered her as being gruff.
William Roger Rice’s parents were from Wales, and they settled in Easton, Maryland
where William Rice was probably born. Walter believes that 4 or 5 children may have died at an early age. Walter speculates his first wife died in childbirth. Walter went to Maryland and met some of the family of William Rice’s wife when he and Audrey were researching Audrey’s family. The Rices lived on the Eastern Shore. Walter may have met two brothers of William Rice: one working as a fireman and the other working in the police department. Millie rembered that her father told her once that he had a son older than Millie who lived in Maryland.
William Roger Rice and Mildred Smith Lord Rice
The wedding certificate says Roger William Rice (Widower) married Mildred Smith Lord (Spinster).
Walter and Millie said their parents had tense relationship. When they married, Mildred was 23 or 26 and William was about 42. Walter felt he was 20 years older than his wife. It was his second marriage, and he told Millie he had an older son from a former marriage. Mildred worked cleaning houses. Later she worked at Woolworths in Davis Square in Somerville. William worked at MBTA elevated T as a blacksmith mechanic. Walter and Millie described him as a smart, quiet, and tall man who had few friends and was not very social.
He might go several months without drinking, but then he would go on a bender for two weeks. He was a binge drinker. He was difficult when he drank and could be very mean. He was like “Dr. Jackel and Mr. Hyde.”
Walter and Millie remembered 3 or 4 kids holding William’s hands.
William Roger Rice was buried in Maryland. There was a funeral home in Boston, and then Mildred went down to Easton, Maryland for the funeral. One time when walking, he said, “I had a family and wife in Maryland. They were different.” Walter found the home of William’s brother: a chief of police; another brother was in the fire department.
Mama didn’t allow curse worse. She would have fallen over if she heard the F word. We didn’t mess around or we would be escorted into the kitchen. Mama Rice was a prim and prober woman with almost no education. She was very bright and did not abide curse words. They had five rooms: boys in one room, Barbara and Evelyn in one bed and Millie in the other bed.
They lived at 496 Main Street in Charleston, MA, which was next to Warren Chambers near Bunker Hill. It was near a Chinese Laundry. Walter remembers watching the Chinese man ironing and also worried that the man was staring at him.
His best friend was Dave Landing. They worked together on the Boston Elevated Train. Dave’s wife Evelyn (Mimi) Landing later lived with Mildred. Mimi was from Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Both women worked at Woolworths in Davis Square.
Picture of Mildred and Mimi (GET PHOTO)
Walter: That’s a great picture.
Millie: Mimi saved us a lot of times.
What do you mean.
Millie: When we didn’t have enough to eat, I would have to go up to Somerville, and she would give us bread and whatever else she had in the house. Millie said, we “never realized we were hungry and that we didn’t have enough to eat.”
Walter: When both of their husbands died, they lived together for twenty five years.
Evelyn: When Kathy came in, Nana and Mimi lived together. were they gay.
Millie: Mimi was crabby a lot
Jim: She would be speaking French. (transcribed from Walter’s 80th birthday DVD)
Walter remembers that his father’s favorite pastime was listening to the |Red Sox on the family radio while smoking a pipe. He also read the newspaper. He could take motors apart. They lived in an apartment in Charlestown, which was fed by steam and owned by mayor of Cambridge. Walter was badly burned by radiator. William helped everyone in building convert their coal or wood stoves to oil.
Walter remembers his mother, Mildred, as the rock of Gibraltar. She was not afraid to tackle anything. She did lots of jobs to keep food on the table. Although she rarely went to church, she made sure children attended church. The denomination didn’t matter.
She made sure children went to camp and had clothes. She also made sure her children had a pair of shoes and a new suit at Easter. The shoes had to last a year. Millie had to polish her white shoes and Walter his dark shoes. They got shoes from Morgan Memorial (a social fraternal organization). The shoes were re-heeled or resoled. When they got holes, family cut out cardboard the right size and put under socks. Walter hated wearing knickers and was so happy when he got his first suit, long gray pants, one Easter.
After he died, Millie recalled that her Mildred had a boyfriend. Millie remembered him cutting branches with an ax. He swore when he cut himself and would not listen to advice. She said he was Snotty. She remembered him always dressed in a suit.
They moved to Woburn and had five acres. Mildred tilled one half acre and had a root cellar where she put up canned peaches, apples, and blue Hubbard squash. She owned chickens and slaughtered them. Mildred worked hard in her garden to supplement store-bought food. They always had enough food even if was macaroni and cheese or beans. There were never many toys. There was a summer kitchen shed where there was an old fashion stove that Mildred began canning in late July. Walter remembers a larger copper kettle boiler with metal racks that had quart jars. Mildred might can 350 to 500 jars each season. She used a pressure cooker.
Walter recounted a story about Evelyn finding her mother, when she was older, on top of refrigerator leaning out the window to clean it. Evelyn yelled at her because she might have fallen out the window. Millie and Walter laughed because they said Mildred would have died happy. Mildred was constantly wallpapering or painting. She was outgoing and loved people. She didn’t boast. What she had, she did extraordinary things with. If the roof had a hole, she was up on the roof patching it. She worked in the kitchen at a hospital in Woburn before she and Mimi moved in together in Somerville.
My mother was boss; Mimi get away from the window
Walter: I have a huge mixing bowl.. It was Mimi’s bowl. Jim, what did she make in that huge bowl.
Jim: Holey poley slathered with butter.
Walter: My first car was a ford. Studebaker Commander. Walter: I had that car for about four year.
Linda: He wears his brakes out in a second because he pumps gas and break. [Linda demonstrates.]
Kenneth: I remember being afraid to drive with Grandma.
Linda: Her last piece of not giving into reality was not giving up her car. We were down in Jefferson.. We were in parking lot. Someone scooted in front of her. Grandma got out and said that’s my spot. She was 85
[When family stopped letting her drive], she cried: She cried. They took away her independence.
Millie: I’ll get a bike.
Someone asks: Are you driving”
Millie: Oh yeah. I don’t’ do highways.
Walter: She would never tell how long she was staying and you would never ask when she was leaving.
Every day you walked by her bedroom. If the bed was stripped, and her suitcases were by the door, you knew she was leaving. Then You say, “Mother, are you going home today. Well I thought I might.
Bald guy: You do this everyday.
Linda: What is your favorite memory of Nana. WE all said the suitcase by the door. Then she’d say When it the next train or bus. When is my bus coming?
Millie: Take the scenic bus all along the shore.
Michael: They’d arrange the entire bus trip for her.
Millie: She’d bring sliced ham.. Also a can of sliced crab. We couldn’t afford it. She couldn’t afford it.
Linda: She made tomato soup cake.
Steve: Did she paint anything at your house?
Linda: Lots of rooms.
Steve: Dad brought a pair of Andirock chairs. The look on Dad’s face. Mildred said, ‘I painted your chairs. Don’t you like them?’ One was bright orange and one was bright yellow. Had those chairs for years.
Millie: And you wonder where we get our stubbornness.
Walter: I’m not stubborn. (transcribed from DVD)
William Roger and Mildred Smith Lord Rice had five children.
Roger Williams Rice worked at First National Grocery store during high school. He’d bring home cardboard boxes of food. Mildred was ingenious and worked with her hands and made things.
Roger died in WW II. First he was in the Merchant Marines and then he was in the Air Force. His plane was shot down on September 16, 1944. For a while he was missing in action. Eventually he was buried in a US military Cemetery in St. Avold, France.
Roger had a friend named Bill Moore, wealthy friend from Harvard. They met through fellowship at church, St. John’s Episcopol in Charleston. . Bill was tall, skinny, and handsome like Gary Cooper. Mrs. Moore sent down payment for a house in Woburn out of Bill’s pension. After Bill died, a notary came. After Roger died, they received $25 or $50 a month. The family was related to the Pulitzer family.
Mildred Anna Rice married Steve Murphy. Steve worked as a baker.
They had two children: Michael James and Stephen Vincent. Millie miscarried five children.
Walter Earl Rice, went to Gordon Bible College. He married Audrey Doris Rice.
Walter attended a summer camp in Elsworth, Maine.
Walter taught elementary school, was a principal, and a minister. They lived in New York and South Carolina. They had two children: Kenneth Wayne who married Lorraine (four children: Stephen, Laura, Andrew, and Gregory Cooper); Linda who married Bob Chase. They had two children: Justin Adam and Alexandra (Allie) Lauren. Walter: Audrey graduated, her brother Bill graduated, Ali and Justin graduated from Port Jeff High School. For years voted one of best 100 schools in nation.
My senior year. I had Spanish a couple of years. They put me in totally all girls’ Spanish class and I loved it. The teacher would say, “Now girls, and one gentleman.”
A history professor in high school from WW I tried to get Walter a history scholarship, but he was absent for a week and Walter didn’t receive scholarship.
Walter had a religious experience in New Hampshire. He was a junior or senior and in an Evangelical group in Woburn. Went to summer camp in Rummey. He had a manual job in his 20s and came home to attend a religious “Christian College.” He was considering going into teaching or nursing. Most of the other guys were in the military
He was not accepted into the military because of his burns. The war was over two months before his birthday. Walter was influenced by Wolcott Cutler, who was arector at Saint John’s Episcopal Church in Charleston. He said, “I will not kill anyone. I’m a pacifist.” The Globe said, we have “a traitor in our midst.”
Walter was a minister in three churches in New Jersey: Glenwood, McCaffee, and Lafayette. He lived in parsonage. There was a little village store. The churches were Baptist and Methodist.
Evelyn Phyllis Rice (McCleary) married Jim McCleary, a truck driver.
They lived in Medford, Massachusetts. They had four children: Jimmy who married Val their kids , Roger who married Mary Beth Erin, Elizabeth, and Patrick, Cathy who married Eddie DeSimone; their children are Stacy, Andrea, and Eddie; David was Evelyn and Jim’s youngest son. He lived with his parents and died in 2007. Millie mentioned Evelyn liked to make up stories.
Barbara Alta Rice, died of pancreatic cancer and had a daughter when she was a
teen. Millie kept in touch with her, and she came to Mildred’s funeral. Only Millie and Mildred knew about her being adopted. Millie said Barbara was slow and lax. Barbara and her husband had eight children: his children, her children, and their children. Millie mentioned something about getting social security. Millie said maybe she was married a second time.
Steve Murphy’s family:
Steve’s mother was Sarah Costello Murphy.
She was married to her husband (name). One or both of them may have been from County Galway in Ireland. Of all the Murphy’s, only Sarah came to Steve and Millie’s wedding because Millie was a protestant. She used to visit them in Maine. Wonderful photographs of her plowing and holding Michael has a baby. She lived in the first or second-story of a triple-decker in Somerville, Massachusetts with her daughter Margaret. She died in 1956.
Vincent died in WW II.
Margaret married Frank Decaro. Their daughter Julie Caruso married Angelo. They had three other children: Frank, Margie, and Joe Their son was Francis DeCaro.
Lawrence died of rheumatic fever a month before Steve and Millie got married.
Thomas Tucker married Kitsy.
Tucker had the same grey patch that Stephen and Devon have.
Their daughter, Barbara, got married in 1956.
John (Jack) was a policeman in Cambridge.
Steve married Millie in 1950.
Sally
Mary
Steve had a cousin ? named Sister Florita who became a nun and might served in Mexico.
June 16, 1916 Stephen (Steve) Joseph Murphy was born
March 30, 1926 – Mildred Anna Rice (Murphy) was born.
April 24, 1929? – Walter Earl Rice born.
June 28, 1928: Jim McCleary was born
September 18, 1929 Evelyn Phyllis Rice (McCleary) was born.
? Barbara Alta Rice was born.
Family lived in Boston, Charlestown, and Wood Street in Woburn.
[When looking at photo of William, Mildred, Millie, and Walter?]
Millie: The only reason you know it’s a girl is because of the buckle shoes.
Walter: I never you had shoes.
Millie: That’s right. Many times we didn’t.
Walter: We used to go to a place like Salvation army that was called Morgan Memorial to get our shoes. (transcribed from Walter’s 80th birthday DVD)
Food was scarce. The kids went to ? school. Mildred sent them each to church. They sang in the choir. Walter was severely burned by a radiator exploding.
George Lord’s wife often invited the children one at a time to come visit them. Millie was sent to a camp for a week and hated it. Walter went to a camp in New Hampshire and loved it. They visited Grandma Adam’s camp. There were three goats: Esmiralda, ? and ?.
[In phone call with Helen Dube, she remember] that Helen’s mom would invite each of the kids, one at a time, to come stay with them and would try to fatten them up with ice cream. She said Millie got so sick from the rich food. That had great fun together. She talked about having an ugly feet contest one day with Millie.
Millie: We never knew any better. Mama was a tough cookie. She was a provider. She was as tough as nails. She was a wonderful person. We didn’t think so at the time sometimes.
Evelyn: When she’d take a [chicken] up to a tree and slit its neck. Kill it. She’d put it down on the table and say strip it. I said what you do you mean strip it? Take all the feathers off.
Millie. We said is this one of your bantam. Oh no, no. This is the other one. Do you remember the barn that was up next to the house?
Walter. Yeah I took it down.
Millie: Mama and I took it down and you
Walter: And we made
Millie: We made a patio. Well trained. Mama decided we’d mix cement.
Someone: What an innovative family.
Someone: mutually supportive
Jim: You figure out how to do it.
Walter: I will say Mama almost never went to church. As kids she absolutely made sure
Millie: Oh yeah down Main Street . . . the little envelop, we were lucky if we had two pennies in it for the collection and we went every Sunday. We had to go and we had to report what we learned.
[They lived on 496 Main Street. There were four floors with no elevator. They lived in the front flat, and the train (the old T) ran every three minutes. The front door was glass (Giloed). There were lots of stairs. After Walter was burned, they went to Warren Chambers, the mayor of Cambridge. They hung the laundry on the roof. Mildred didn’t want to dry the clothes in the house. They had a two or three room apartment. They lived in front of 2nd floor and lived in back of 1st floor. Cat Meows. There was a bedroom off to the side looking out to Whity’s. Millie had bath. Maybe there were two bathrooms that people shared. When Mildred was in bedroom, there was a red string and door knob, and the radiator cap blew off and hit six-year-old Walter in the chest. Millie was nine. The mayor was Mayor Curly. They rushed Walter to Haymarket Reief Station and City Hospital. They couldn’t get admitted. Millie said, “Rob Peter to pay Paul.” Then Millie and Mildred went to see Mayor James Michael Curly who had shamracks on his souse. Secretaries said they could see the mayor. Mildred was determined. They were told he was to a meeting. Mildred ran into Mayor Curly. They were invited into his personal office. The mayor insisted the hospital “find a place for that child.”
Walter took a train to Providence. There was a residency at federal prison in Danbury. Millie waited at the train station to welcome Mayor Curly with band. There were 5000 people. Walter tapped Millie on the back.
At Warren, there was a little old lady in a corner room. Millie and Barbara fell into their father’s arms. Daddy flew down the stairs.
Walter and Millie talked about the Coconut Grove Fired.
Walter: And I sang in the choir
Laugher.
Millie: I did
Walter: I sang in the choir at St. John’s.
Millie: with the red robes
Walter: And we got a little envelop at the end of the month. I think each time we showed up we got five cents.
Millie: I got a
Everlyn: I got a cross
Millie: afterwards I got a bible. I sang in the choir. We went to Clarence Edward School and sang at Christmas in the corridors. It was…. Everyone else has a dull life.
When you need to do what you need to do, you do it. (transcribed from Walter’s 80th birthday DVD)
1934: Steve graduated from Somerville High School. He lived on 52 Webster Street.
1939: Millie saw Frank Sinatra concert at the RKO in Boston. The subway cost a nickel, and the movies cost a quarter.
1941: Millie was 16 when her father died.
She stopped school at 10th grade to get a job and help take care of her younger siblings and to help pay the bills, then went back to school in 11th grade but got another job in the middle of 11th. She was a prolific reader and had amazing understanding. She was self-taught. She worked at a factory where her clever fingers could construct the gas masks quickly and efficiently. Millie and her mother worked at the Oxford Press, which was near the railroad tracks in Medford. They shipped the products by railway. Millie made filters for gas masks to help keep the soldiers safe from poison gas. The older ladies were not happy with how quickly Millie could work. There was collar that they pushed together. The top was the size of a coffee can and they pressed it together to be ¼ inch filter. Millie also may have done something with blue prints. Millie and Mildred worked to pay for Walter’s education. There was a huge blower suspended from the ceiling. Pieces came lose. It was pure asbestos. Like white sow it came down. (hemofilious). The asbestos on the machine they worked under contributed to bad coughs and made colds worse. Walter suspects the asbestos contributed to health problems Mildred had later in life. Waltr talked about her weak lungs and hacking cough. Millie said, “I just did what I had to do” at Browning Laboratories. I asked the boss not to stand over my shoulder behind me.” When the blowers were shut off at six, the asbestos would settle down on them. Their hair and clothes were full of the asbestos. Walter (at 15 & 16) also worked during the summers and after school at the Oxford Press. He worked in the Press Room and placed letters. He was paid by the numbers he made. The company made large books for coffee tables on a small scale. The company was one Bromfield Road in Somerville (2nd & 3rd street). All three walked home together at lunch and at 6.
1943: Steve joined the navy
He shipped out of Boston, to Pittsburg, where they picked up ship at Kaiser Steel Works, went down the Ohio River and the Mississippi River to New Orleans, where they picked up balance of crew. Then they had a month of training and sea trials before they went to Havana, Cuba, and through the Panama Canal to the Pacific where they participated in the Philippines Campaign. He worked as Chief Commissary Steward on a LST 46 (landing ship tank). He ran the kitchen and was a gunner. He was in the New Hebrides, the Solomon Islands, and the Phillipines. They delivered tanks after the initial seaborne assault and picked up wounded. There are photographs of the natives carrying bombs.
September 16, 1944: Roger Wi1liam Rice’s plane goes down.
1944: William Roger Rice died.
1945: Moved to Woburn.
1946 to 1950: Walter reminiscing about attending Gordon College
Walter: I met this wonderful man and his wife. They could not pay a full time preacher. I was token protestant member of the St. John’s Catholic theological program. In WW II he became a missionary to China. He became friend of Chang Hi Check. He was on the long… march. Later he became director of chapel in Rangoon, England. In China, War broke out, Edward R Murrow was part of broadcast on that long march south. The minister sent his wife and children back to England and to the State. He and Audrey became life-long friends.
Walter: I didn’t have a dime to my name. Millie and Mama worked to put me through school. I was working for Cassidy for $30 a week making boxes. I worked four years in the kitchen. That wasn’t unusual. The biggest amount of money we ever had was a buck or two and we could get a toasted bagel at the corner store. Not a bagel but a fried Danish on the grill and a cup of coffee. This was end of war. It was 1946. Everyone in my class was a vet. Only two or three of us weren’t in draft. I was never called. The war ended just before I graduated.
Bill: Did you have a clue what you wanted to be.
Walter: I didn’t have a clue. Remember this was a small missionary school.
Did you live on campus”
We couldn’t afford to have him home.
I was in the party of Bill M on Christmas day. And his brother was best man in my wedding on New Year’s Day.
Evelyn: Mama said are we going to have Grace. Someone said: “Whose Grace? Laughter
Bill: How did you meet Audrey?
Walter: She was a junior, and I was a senior, and we were watching this stupid movie, and this other guy tried to edge me out, and I tried to edge him out. Then I asked her for a date. Audrey
Walter: We used to see him at Christmas.
Millie: [About Walter] He still has hair. I like your look, too.
Walter: My hair still grows very fast
Millie: A pony tail.
Alli: Didn’t get gray hair til 75.
Millie: Like me, my hair doesn’t get grey. (Transcribed from DVD]
1946?: Millie began working at the First National where Steve was a foreman.
“I went to work after war thing and gun thing. I went to work at First National which had big warehouse and big bakery. Steve (Murphy) was one of the foremen at the bakery. He was a pompous so and so. I was lucky enough to work down in the back part because the guys would let me clean the machines when nobody was looking. I said every high school should be next to a bakery so every high school kid has to work their butt off. Nice and warm. In the summer it’s glorious. They had a ladies shower and a men’s shower, and they told me never go up there and use it. The men’s shower, and if you ever had to go up and change your clothes and put on this stunning white thing that looked like a mumu all the way down to floor with a big belt and an apron and buttons. You put that on to go down and do your work. Once someone threw a man out of the men’s room naked. You know I was 18 years old and had never seen a man naked. I would work in the backroom and the guys knew they were a lot of bad men there so they would walk me through the warehouse because they thought this dumb kid doesn’t know any better. But I worked there for a couple of years, and I didn’t like Steve. He was one of the foremen/boss. He was a … I’m not gonna say that. All of a sudden he called when I quit work. I went to Winchester to work at welding little radio parts and making those things that go into big machines…There was a lady that did the engraving on the front of some machines on some ? scope. Some man asked me, “Do you think you could do that?” ‘She can show me.” This lady did one a day and I don’t know what she made [earned]. I went over and she taught me. They fired her. I could make three a day.”
Millie: Steve called one day because he knew I liked the beach. We were living in Woburn then. He’d come up and take me to the beach. I thought Oh God. He was 10 years older than me. What did he know about younger people, I thought. It was very nice. Your mother loved him.
Walter: The sun rose and set on him.
Millie: Oh my God. When we got a little better acquainted, Mama said, “Why don’t you let him take a shower before he gets dressed to go home? He had this salty bathing suit, sandy, so we. You remember
Walter: Where the shower was.
Millie: You remember the shower down stairs. You remember there was only one setting. I hear this primal scream. It was ice cold. He said you haven’t got any hot water. I said no.
Evelyn: That’s all we ever had.
(transcribed from DVD from Walter’s 80th birthday)
Millie often told the story of an early date with Steve where he was taking her out for lobster. Her friend taught her how to eat lobster so she would know how.
Millie told us that “Steve liked to dance. Sometimes, I’d get a little raucous. She would give me the look.” She loved Gene Kelly.
1946: Steve mustered out of the navy and returned to First National Bakery in
Somerville. He was a baker and foreman.
1949:
[When looking at photo of Millie in dress]
Walter: This is corner Tufts University.
Millie: I had a dress
Walter: Roger was in England in the service and he wanted a picture. I remember that very vividly. We went up there. I was a junior in Somerville High School. Then we moved to Woburn and I was in the senior class. (when Walter visited us in NH, he mentioned that it was hard to move as a senior, and he got involved in the church group and made good friends and roomed at Seminary with one of these friends.
Who is that at Missionary Training Institute. That’s Audrey.
Millie He graduated. (picture of baccalaureate degree)
Walter: 1949.
Millie: That was a good year.
Walter: I want you to know that I graduated from the same school twice. It was a three year school. I graduated. Then it became a four school. So I stay and graduated again. I was accepted at Taylor University. I was going there but when they put in fourth year I stayed right at ?. I was president of the class my senior year at Providence Bible Institute.
Ali: Both senior years you were president. (transcribed from DVD from Walter’s 80th birthday)
November 3, 1950: Millie married Steve Murphy
when she was 26 and he was 36. They married in November, 1950. After she married, Steve encouraged her to get her GED. They had an apartment in Portland, Maine, and he worked as the General Manager of the First National Bakery in Portland.
Millie lived next to “Gramma” Burcheron. She and Millie made Millie’s wedding suit. Millie’s good friend was Lucy.
Millie: Mother would tell us. When I married Steve, I went to Maine. Fortunately, we had the best neighbors. That’s when I learned to braid the rugs. Anna taught me. You learned to can vegetables. She had two little pigs. I said I’m not eating them. They butchered them and sent them down to us, and I said I’m not eating them. I loved pork, but I didn’t eat them. When you go some place difference, you learn from different things.
Walter: Did you do canning when you got married?
Millie: Yes I did. I had no clue how to do it, but my neighbor actually had a television show, a cooking show, the first one in Maine, the first one, a nice little lady. She had no airs. It was the first one they were trying out. And she said you have to can because I had a garden. One of the neighbors said he had a plow, and he said are you going to put the garden it. I said yes. About 8 by 10. The whole side of the house was [plowed] so I put a garden in and I had tomatoes, cucumbers, and string beans. And that’s when I canned. And nobody died. I mean it was interesting. (Transcribed from DVD from Walter’s 80th birthday party)
November 11, 1950: Evelyn married Jim McCleary.
They met at a roller rink called the Balla Rae. Uncle Jim was an usher. Evelyn was good at 10 pin bowling while Millie was a champion at candle pin bowling.
December 31, 1950 or January 1, 1951: Walter Rice married Audrey (born April 16).
1951: With his VA money, Steve and Millie bought a house in Cape Elizabeth, Maine
near the ocean. Their neighbors were Betty Davis and Gary Merrell. Michael was born there on July 31, 1951. Millie planted a large garden and helped supplement Steve’s income by clearning houses. She saved to earn a set of cutlery, one setting at a time. Her special friends werr Anna and Carl (Cullie) Wingren, Barbara and Jack Arnaldo, Bill and Marion MaCarthur, Sue and Frank Noyce. Gary Noyce was like a third son. Anna had her own cooking show. Anna teaches Millie to make braided rugs.
They liked to go to lots of dances at the Golf Club. It had live music.
July 31, 1951: Michael James Murphy was born.
Grandma Sarah Murphy lived in Somerville with daughter, Margaret.
1950s: When Millie recuperated from her miscarriages, Michael stayed with Anna
Wingreen, and she taught him how to cook in her wonderful kitchen with two stoves.
June of 1956: the Murphy family moved to Stoneham, Massachusetts,
where they lived across the street from Doris and Tom Corcoran. Doris became Millie’s best friend. “Earth to Doris” became an humorous phrase describing Doris who once asked “Do pigeons fly?”
They loved to sit out in the yard and drink iced coffee.
Steve worked for the First National Bakery in Somerville, Massachusetts as General Manager of the bakery. They belonged to the Golf Club and paid yearly dues.
March 11, 1958: Stephen was born in Stoneham on March 11, 1958.
Millie and Steve loved to get together with their friends and play golf: Tom and Doris Corcoran, Louise and Bob Dole, Lil and Adam Bushman. Many Sundays they went to the beach in Gloucester. They loved to go to parties where they dressed us up according to themes like Hawaiian or Roaring Twenties. Millie loved to bowl and won many trophies for Candle Pin bowling tournaments.
1960s: “It was Steve’s idea to get our corgi: Charlie Brown. Two days later, he wanted
to get rid of the dog.”
1968: The Murphy family moved to Portland where they lived on Gleckler Road.
Millie loved to bowl and won many trophies for Candle Pin bowling tournaments. She loved to dance and admired Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.She loved to dance and admired Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Steve lost his job in 1968. He worked temp jobs in small artisan bakeries in Somerville and Cambridge.
1969: Michael graduates from Deering High School in Portland, Maine.
Millie told Michael: “You did finally enjoy Deering after a bit” Michael had to leave Stoneham High school after junior year. Michael explained, “I went to Hamilton. I was recruited by principal who was scholar athlete. They gave me a scholarship.”
Steve began working at Nissen Bakery as a General Manager of Bakery.
1971. Steve lost his job at Nissen Bakery. He got a job working at the Arnold Bakery in
Smithfield, Rhode Island. He commuted to Maine and had apartment in Rhode Island.
1973: Michael graduated from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York
1974 to 1984: Steve began working at Seiler’s.
1976: Stephen graduated from Deering High School in Portland, Maine
1978: Donna and Dick Genaitis (Broderick) moved to Stoneham and Donna became
Millie’s best friend, a second daughter.
Millie remembered the crotchety old farmer named Rhuland. He owned the farm house and sold strawberries, but he sold land to developer. He had three stipulations:
1. Required ranch style homes or splits and no two-story houses.
2. The street had to be named after him.
3. The new parcels had to be on street named Randolph after his wife’s family.
May, 1979: Mildred Lord Smith Rice died. Cathy McCleary remembers her living on
Cedar Avenue in Somerville, parallel to Broadway near Park. Mildred would pay Roger to do shopping because he had girlfriend, but she wouldn’t pay Cathy. She had a push lawn mower. Cathy would take her to get flowers. She liked a beer now and then: Knickerbocker Beer or Carling Black Label.
1980: Stephen and Carolyn Burt graduated from University of Maine at Orono.
Stephen diagnosed with Hodgkin’s A-1. He came home to Stoneham, and Millie drove him to hospital for all treatments.
1976: Steve and Millie moved back to Stoneham, Massachusetts.
They lived next door to Donna Broderick, her best friend for many years.
Donna’s family basically adopted her for all major holiday and birthday celebrations. Millie was also close to Alvie and Rose, who lived next door. Donna has been integral in helping care for Millie recently and has been a daughter to her. Steve got a job working for Seillers Corporation in Waltham, Massachusestts. He ran the bakery.
Summer 1977: Cy and Stevie meet Steve and Millie, and Millie teaches Cy to eat lobster.
August 27, 1977: Michael Murphy married Cathy Eaton in Northfield, Ohio.
Cathy was daughter of Cyrus and Stevie Eaton. Her siblings are Cyrus Wind Dancer, John who married Beth Ferree, and Elizabeth who married and divorced John (Casey) Thigpen and William. Cyrus’s son is Nathaniel Eaton, John and Beth’s children are Charlie, Matt, and Chris. Cathy and Michael’s children are Colin and Devon. Elizabeth’s children are Shantin (married to Ashley and father of Tiger Lily and Django), Isaiah, and Sarah, mother of Kayden.)
1979: Mildred Smith (Lord) Rice died. She was 80. She was born on December 8, 1899.
November 26, 1982: Colin Eaton Murphy was born in Cleveland, Ohio
November 1983: Steve and Millie came with Stephen and Carolyn to Cleveland
for Thanksgiving. They brought lobster. Steve flew out ahead of others and stayed a week with Cathy and Michael. That was last time Cathy and Michael saw him. He always wanted to take Colin to Brigham’s and buy him ice cream with Jimmies. He saw Colin take his first steps.
January 1984: Steve Murphy had heart attack and was hospitalized.
At the hospital he suffered from terrible case of hiccups. He was unable to give up his addiction to cigarettes even in the hospital.
February 8, 1984: On the night before Steve died, he chatted on the phone for a long time with Cathy and Michael.
February 9, 1984: Stephen Joseph Murphy died of a heart attack in their kitchen in Stoneham. He has been given permission to go back to work, and he and Millie were planning to go walking at the mall to help him get his strength back.
February, 1984: Steve’s wake and funeral. Afterwards, family and friends gathered at
their home on 10 Randolph Road. Seiller’s catered the reception. They wrote a wonderful tribute to Steve. He had managed for ten years at Seiller’s the English Muffin and Bakery Departments of the Consumer Products Division. “Steve’s considerable management and baking skills, acquired over a long and distinguished career with First National Stores, Arnold’s and john J. Nissen Baking Company before coming to Seiler’s were the catalyst that made possible the transition from frozen food manufacturing to high volume, premium quality bakery operations. To many, Steve was simply an ‘all business’ baker with flour dust on his shoes and notes written on his baking hat. Those who were privileged to work for him and with him, will remember him best for the lessons he taught each day about how to live our lives and conduct our business with dedication and dignity.”
Summer 1984: Millie hosted bridal shower for Carolyn.
1984: Karl Winnegren made a blue rocking horse for Colin and a pull duck out of wood.
October 20, 1984: Stephen and Carolyn Burt were married in East Hampton, Mass.
She is the daughter of Carole and Jerry Burt. Her siblings are Donna Burt Pawlikowski, Jairus (Jack) Burt. She has two nieces Hillary Osgood, Melanie Burt one nephew, Collin Burt.
September 3, 1985: Devon Eaton Murphy was born in Cleveland, Ohio.
Millie made maternity clothes and diaper bags for young friends and family. She also crocheted and knitted as her mother had done.
November 1985: Millie, Stephen and Carolyn fly to Cleveland
to help Michael and Cathy get house ready to sell.
1987 to 2009 Millie travels to Asheville, NC, Annapolis, MD, and Bedford, NH
to visit her grandchildren. She makes them capes, tunics, and masks. Every year she is Nana the Santa and fills everyone’s stockings, buys us boxes of Rice Pilaf, and presents by the bushel full. Best bargains in town; most love in the universe.
Millie mows her lawn, tends her rock garden, helps her friends, sends cards to all she loves, frequents the Stoneham Library and reads five or six books a week, is a whiz at Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune and completes many word puzzles. She goes out on Stephen’s boat and visits Carolyn’s Ironstone Farm. Millie enjoys Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and birthdays with her two families: Stephen and Michael’s family and Donna’s family. Carolyn takes Millie to get materials for braiding rugs.
? Millie fell from large ? backyard tree she was pruning. After creeping across the yard, Millie’s crawled up the cement stairs and called Uncle Jim. She broke her wrist and hip????
Summer 1993: Great croquet tournament with Stevie and Cy Eaton in Bedford, NH.
March 2006: Stephen and Carolyn hosted Millie’s 80th birthday.
2007: David McCleary died.
May 2009: Stephen and Michael convince Millie to attend Walter’s 80th birthday. Evelyn, Millie, and Walter get together first time in many years at Pawley’ Island
As new young families moved onto or near Randolph Road, Millie became a surrogate grandmother to the Manzi family (Joey, Brenna, Vin and Kelly) who called her Murph and the Wood family (John, Lisa, Jonathan, Anthony & Thomas) who called her Tweetie. These families have visited Millie frequently and brought her much joy.
January 2011: As Millie’s Alzheimer’s worsened and her heart weakened,
Stephen and Carolyn, Michael and Cathy, Donna Broderick, and Amy ?, and all Millie’s neighbors made it possible for Millie to stay in her home on 10 Randolph Road in Stoneham. Many friends and family visited over the next 9 months.
In January Amy became a 24/7 caregiver for Millie. Mary substituted for Amy. Donna began coming three times a week. Carolyn, Michael, and Stephen went to countless hospital visits, organized all the care-giving and medication, got wheel chairs for Millie, had bathroom aids and stairway railings installed for Millie.
March 14, 2011: Audrey Doris Rice died surrounded by loving family.
July 2011: Walter Rice came to visit Millie and Evelyn.
September 4, 2011: Millie entered Kaplan Family Hospice House
on 78 Liberty Street in Danvers, MA.
September 9: Millie was alert for an hour, and her bed was wheeled outside her bedroom
partially into the patio where she talked about ways to improve the garden.
September 10, 2011: Many friends and family visited Millie.
Walter Rice and Linda Chase arrived in the early evening and Walter held a family prayer and blessing.
10 pm: Millie died. Cathy was holding her hand and Michael was by her side. The moon was full. The sky was bright
September 15, 2011: Millie’s service was held at the Barile Family Funeral Homes
in Stoneham. Patti Keele presided. One of Millie’s braided rugs welcomed friends and family. An arrangement of plants were on the casket and another of Millie’s braided rugs was placed by the kneeler. Chocolate kisses were a treat for everyone. A board of photos celebrating Millie and a DVD of photos celebrated Millie’s life triggered many memories and stories. Colin, Michael, and Stephen captured the essence of Millie in their remembrances.
Millie was buried next to Steve at the Lindenwood Cemetery in Stoneham,
Massachusetts. Family and friends were treated to chocolate kisses from a pottery bowl that Joan Nordstrom had made. Afterwards, everyone gathered at Polcari’s in Woburn, Massachusetts. Carolyn captured Millie’s love for gardens by arranging for violets and other plants to be given to special friends and family and giving Helen Dube daisies that looked like Helen’s painting of the daisies that Millie always hung above her television.
John Wood and his family bought Millie’s house first to rent and then added a second floor so his whole family could live there. Millie would be so pleased.
These notes are based on listening to Walter Rice and Millie Murphy chat about their lives and from asking Millie questions and from transcribing sections of DVD that Bill Jersey (Audrey’s brother) took at Walter’s 80th’ birthday party, from Helen Dube’s email, and from Michael Murphy’s and Cathy Eaton’s memories. I hope you will read this and add to it and make corrections and send me more stories and memories to include.
Much love, Cathy Eaton (November 27, 2011)
Burt G. and Ellen Smith were George and Mildred’s parents.
“George Earl Lord, was born on August 23, 1897 and died on June 14, 1988. I believe Aunt Mildred was born two years later. [Mildred was born December 8, 1899]. My father told me he came home from school and found his mother dead on the floor and his sister sitting by her side crying. He said they went to a neighbor and subsequently were sent to an orphanage in Boston. He fled the orphanage and lived on the streets until he was found. Subsequently, both he and Mildred were sent to Salem and lived with a family that owned a drugstore (he thought somewhere in South Salem). This family was of Polish descent.
The mother was kind to them, but the father beat them both when he drank. Thankfully they both were taken in by Lena Whittsley Adams and her husband on the farm in Georgetown, Massachusetts. They both went to school in Georgetown in what is now the Town Hall. George worked on the farm, leading the cows down to the nearby pond, etc. and Mildred worked in the house. They had a good healthy life there after all the previous misfortune.” (According to Helen Rice Dube, 2011)
Mildred Rice
73 Bromfield Road
Somerville, MA
Mildren Smith Lord – daughter of Burt G. and Ellen (Smith) born in Northampton, December 8, 1898.
Year 1899. Vol. 476. Page 39. No 375. Date of record Jan 20, 1899.
George E. Lord, died at 91. He lived on 7 Station Road In Salem, Massachusetts, and was a driver for the Ntional Biscuit Co before retiring in 1962. Born in Northampton, he was the son of the late Earl and Ellen (Smith) Lord. He was a member of American legion Post 23 in Salem. He was the husband of the late Catherine (Hennessey) Lord and the late Alice (Flynn) Lord. Daughter Helen and son-in-law Paul Dube of Peabody and three granddaughters, Paula M Dube, Suzanne H. Kelley of Lynfield and Kathryn LeGere of George town.
Audrey Doris Rice died on March 14, 2011. She attended Gordon Bible College where she met her husband Walter. Daughter Linda Rice Chase of Port Jefferson and two grandchildren Justin Adam Chase of New York City and Alexandra Laruen Chase of Boston, Massachusetts, and her son and daughter-in-law Kenneth Wayne Rice and Lorraine Rice of Belle Terre and New York City and four step-grandchildren, Stephen, Laura, Andrew, and Gregory Cooper.
Katherine Lord
Katherine F. “Rena” (Hennessey) Lord of 6 Oak Street, died Tuesday in Danvers. Born Nov. 10, 1894 in Salem and had resided here all her life. Attended St. James Parish. Survived by her husband George E. Lord, a daughter of Helen F. Dube of Salem, two brothers David V. Hennessey, and Philip A. Hennessey of Peabody.
In 1934 Stephen Murphy graduated from Somerville High School. He lived on 52 Webster Street. Under his high school picture, it said “Character – a nobleness that will continue.”
Millie and Steve Murphy went on their honeymoon to the Hotel Statler in NYC on Seventh Ave and 33rd Street and stayed in Room 1447. They were given by Joe Lowe Corporation tickets to see South Pacific for Monday, November 6, 1950 and Mr. Roberts on Tuesday , November 7. The tickets were from Mike Braff and Henry Montminney.
AT the time Millie was living at 38 Wood Street, Woburn, MA. Millie saved the ticket stubs. FF in the orchestra section. The tickets cost $6.00. First National in Portland, Maine sent a telegram saying “Peculiar Things happening in the bakery today dough don’t rise no hole in doughnuts and Virginia is smiling good luck.
George and Mildred (Smith) Lord
were born in Northampton, Massachusetts.
They were orphaned when George was about six and Mildred three. The Adams wanted to take George out of orphanage to work their farm. He refused to go without his sister.
They became the foster children of Nina (Gramma) Adams who adopted Anne Phyllis, who may have been the illegitimate daughter of Mr. Adams. Millie said she was a stuck up prude. They ran a dancing school and taught ballroom dancing.
Mildred and George went to school up to 5th grade.
Gramma Adams (Lena Whittlesey Adams)
Lena Whittlesey Adams and husband owned Dancing Studio in Boston and Salem for Ballroom Dancing. The larger studio burned in the great Salem Fire. They had house in Boston and house in Salem and summer home in Georgetown, MA.
Lena had a big library and she allowed Millie to read. Then she questioned her about what the book was about. Millie had to show that her hands were very clean. She made Millie give an apple she took from a tree back to the owner. Gramma said about Millie that she “was such a homely child” who was “thin and sickly.” She had to take a nap. She remembers a big picture o a lion above a big couch where she napped. She said about Gramma Adams, “She certainly was an experience.”
In the living room was a couch for naps with the painting of a massive ferocious lion. We had to say grace. Mr. Hasketll was her lover, and he was the gardener. There were three goats: Esmiralda, Sasprilla, and Susan. Two were for milking.
On Millie’s 16th birthday, Gramma Adams gave her a ring with a moon stone that Millie gave to Cathy Eaton. Millie remembers when the rabbit died. Gramma Adams said the lunch was chicken (not the rabbit), and they made gloves our of rabbit fur.
Gramma Adams read Shakespeare out loud to Walter and Millie. She read with inflection. She asked kids to tell her stories. She was very prim and proper. Gramma Adams made wood cuts out of plain pieces of wood. She made pastoral scenes and nature scenes. The front parlor was off limits to the kids. She painted a sea scape that was in a gilded frame. She wasn’t used to children.
On her property there were trees and a meadow. Up the road was a well house. Millie and her siblings went for two weeks in the summer. Mama, all the children, and Mimi. Dad came up on Friday night after it was dark. The boys stayed in a tent, and the girls, Mildred and Mimi stayed in the Well House. They washed outside. They loved to prime the pump.
The spring was 500 feet away. They had buckets on a stick, which they filled with water from the spring. When Millie saw a snake, she “hightailed” it out of there, screaming bloody murder. She still had to return to spring for water. “Galvanized pails at bottom of roof. Water spouts. Take turns.
Mr.Haskell took goats out, and he milked them. He squirted milk in the face of the cats. Goats lived in the garage. They had Couchin Bantams (hens and roosters, miniature and regular size.) There was a little cart that the goats pulled. Rides on the goats.
Dirt roads. Tennant house had barn.
Her adopted daughter, Phyllis, lived on Beacon Street and had a beautiful old Lasalle convertible. Millie said, “Mama helped raise her like an older sister. Phyllis came down once a year and picked us up in Charlestown. She picked up Roger (14), Millie, Walter, Evelyn, and Barbara (5). She had a Model T. Roger worked on the car. Go to Georgetown in Lasalle. Phyllis has a gentlemen caller.
George Earl Lord married Catherine Hennessey and later Alice Flynn.
His daughter Helen married Paul Dube. They had three daughters: Paula M, Suzanne H, and Kathryn (Kate) LeGere
George Lord married Aunt Rina. Millie remembers her making pie, and Steve insisting unable to resist helping her her crimp the pie. George lived in Salem, MA. He worked at cookie factory near North Station called National Biscuit. They had one child, Helen. George’s second wife was Alice. Millie remembered her as being gruff.
William Roger Rice’s parents were from Wales, and they settled in Easton, Maryland
where William Rice was probably born. Walter believes that 4 or 5 children may have died at an early age. Walter speculates his first wife died in childbirth. Walter went to Maryland and met some of the family of William Rice’s wife when he and Audrey were researching Audrey’s family. The Rices lived on the Eastern Shore. Walter may have met two brothers of William Rice: one working as a fireman and the other working in the police department. Millie rembered that her father told her once that he had a son older than Millie who lived in Maryland.
William Roger Rice and Mildred Smith Lord Rice
The wedding certificate says Roger William Rice (Widower) married Mildred Smith Lord (Spinster).
Walter and Millie said their parents had tense relationship. When they married, Mildred was 23 or 26 and William was about 42. Walter felt he was 20 years older than his wife. It was his second marriage, and he told Millie he had an older son from a former marriage. Mildred worked cleaning houses. Later she worked at Woolworths in Davis Square in Somerville. William worked at MBTA elevated T as a blacksmith mechanic. Walter and Millie described him as a smart, quiet, and tall man who had few friends and was not very social.
He might go several months without drinking, but then he would go on a bender for two weeks. He was a binge drinker. He was difficult when he drank and could be very mean. He was like “Dr. Jackel and Mr. Hyde.”
Walter and Millie remembered 3 or 4 kids holding William’s hands.
William Roger Rice was buried in Maryland. There was a funeral home in Boston, and then Mildred went down to Easton, Maryland for the funeral. One time when walking, he said, “I had a family and wife in Maryland. They were different.” Walter found the home of William’s brother: a chief of police; another brother was in the fire department.
Mama didn’t allow curse worse. She would have fallen over if she heard the F word. We didn’t mess around or we would be escorted into the kitchen. Mama Rice was a prim and prober woman with almost no education. She was very bright and did not abide curse words. They had five rooms: boys in one room, Barbara and Evelyn in one bed and Millie in the other bed.
They lived at 496 Main Street in Charleston, MA, which was next to Warren Chambers near Bunker Hill. It was near a Chinese Laundry. Walter remembers watching the Chinese man ironing and also worried that the man was staring at him.
His best friend was Dave Landing. They worked together on the Boston Elevated Train. Dave’s wife Evelyn (Mimi) Landing later lived with Mildred. Mimi was from Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Both women worked at Woolworths in Davis Square.
Picture of Mildred and Mimi (GET PHOTO)
Walter: That’s a great picture.
Millie: Mimi saved us a lot of times.
What do you mean.
Millie: When we didn’t have enough to eat, I would have to go up to Somerville, and she would give us bread and whatever else she had in the house. Millie said, we “never realized we were hungry and that we didn’t have enough to eat.”
Walter: When both of their husbands died, they lived together for twenty five years.
Evelyn: When Kathy came in, Nana and Mimi lived together. were they gay.
Millie: Mimi was crabby a lot
Jim: She would be speaking French. (transcribed from Walter’s 80th birthday DVD)
Walter remembers that his father’s favorite pastime was listening to the |Red Sox on the family radio while smoking a pipe. He also read the newspaper. He could take motors apart. They lived in an apartment in Charlestown, which was fed by steam and owned by mayor of Cambridge. Walter was badly burned by radiator. William helped everyone in building convert their coal or wood stoves to oil.
Walter remembers his mother, Mildred, as the rock of Gibraltar. She was not afraid to tackle anything. She did lots of jobs to keep food on the table. Although she rarely went to church, she made sure children attended church. The denomination didn’t matter.
She made sure children went to camp and had clothes. She also made sure her children had a pair of shoes and a new suit at Easter. The shoes had to last a year. Millie had to polish her white shoes and Walter his dark shoes. They got shoes from Morgan Memorial (a social fraternal organization). The shoes were re-heeled or resoled. When they got holes, family cut out cardboard the right size and put under socks. Walter hated wearing knickers and was so happy when he got his first suit, long gray pants, one Easter.
After he died, Millie recalled that her Mildred had a boyfriend. Millie remembered him cutting branches with an ax. He swore when he cut himself and would not listen to advice. She said he was Snotty. She remembered him always dressed in a suit.
They moved to Woburn and had five acres. Mildred tilled one half acre and had a root cellar where she put up canned peaches, apples, and blue Hubbard squash. She owned chickens and slaughtered them. Mildred worked hard in her garden to supplement store-bought food. They always had enough food even if was macaroni and cheese or beans. There were never many toys. There was a summer kitchen shed where there was an old fashion stove that Mildred began canning in late July. Walter remembers a larger copper kettle boiler with metal racks that had quart jars. Mildred might can 350 to 500 jars each season. She used a pressure cooker.
Walter recounted a story about Evelyn finding her mother, when she was older, on top of refrigerator leaning out the window to clean it. Evelyn yelled at her because she might have fallen out the window. Millie and Walter laughed because they said Mildred would have died happy. Mildred was constantly wallpapering or painting. She was outgoing and loved people. She didn’t boast. What she had, she did extraordinary things with. If the roof had a hole, she was up on the roof patching it. She worked in the kitchen at a hospital in Woburn before she and Mimi moved in together in Somerville.
My mother was boss; Mimi get away from the window
Walter: I have a huge mixing bowl.. It was Mimi’s bowl. Jim, what did she make in that huge bowl.
Jim: Holey poley slathered with butter.
Walter: My first car was a ford. Studebaker Commander. Walter: I had that car for about four year.
Linda: He wears his brakes out in a second because he pumps gas and break. [Linda demonstrates.]
Kenneth: I remember being afraid to drive with Grandma.
Linda: Her last piece of not giving into reality was not giving up her car. We were down in Jefferson.. We were in parking lot. Someone scooted in front of her. Grandma got out and said that’s my spot. She was 85
[When family stopped letting her drive], she cried: She cried. They took away her independence.
Millie: I’ll get a bike.
Someone asks: Are you driving”
Millie: Oh yeah. I don’t’ do highways.
Walter: She would never tell how long she was staying and you would never ask when she was leaving.
Every day you walked by her bedroom. If the bed was stripped, and her suitcases were by the door, you knew she was leaving. Then You say, “Mother, are you going home today. Well I thought I might.
Bald guy: You do this everyday.
Linda: What is your favorite memory of Nana. WE all said the suitcase by the door. Then she’d say When it the next train or bus. When is my bus coming?
Millie: Take the scenic bus all along the shore.
Michael: They’d arrange the entire bus trip for her.
Millie: She’d bring sliced ham.. Also a can of sliced crab. We couldn’t afford it. She couldn’t afford it.
Linda: She made tomato soup cake.
Steve: Did she paint anything at your house?
Linda: Lots of rooms.
Steve: Dad brought a pair of Andirock chairs. The look on Dad’s face. Mildred said, ‘I painted your chairs. Don’t you like them?’ One was bright orange and one was bright yellow. Had those chairs for years.
Millie: And you wonder where we get our stubbornness.
Walter: I’m not stubborn. (transcribed from DVD)
William Roger and Mildred Smith Lord Rice had five children.
Roger Williams Rice worked at First National Grocery store during high school. He’d bring home cardboard boxes of food. Mildred was ingenious and worked with her hands and made things.
Roger died in WW II. First he was in the Merchant Marines and then he was in the Air Force. His plane was shot down on September 16, 1944. For a while he was missing in action. Eventually he was buried in a US military Cemetery in St. Avold, France.
Roger had a friend named Bill Moore, wealthy friend from Harvard. They met through fellowship at church, St. John’s Episcopol in Charleston. . Bill was tall, skinny, and handsome like Gary Cooper. Mrs. Moore sent down payment for a house in Woburn out of Bill’s pension. After Bill died, a notary came. After Roger died, they received $25 or $50 a month. The family was related to the Pulitzer family.
Mildred Anna Rice married Steve Murphy. Steve worked as a baker.
They had two children: Michael James and Stephen Vincent. Millie miscarried five children.
Walter Earl Rice, went to Gordon Bible College. He married Audrey Doris Rice.
Walter attended a summer camp in Elsworth, Maine.
Walter taught elementary school, was a principal, and a minister. They lived in New York and South Carolina. They had two children: Kenneth Wayne who married Lorraine (four children: Stephen, Laura, Andrew, and Gregory Cooper); Linda who married Bob Chase. They had two children: Justin Adam and Alexandra (Allie) Lauren. Walter: Audrey graduated, her brother Bill graduated, Ali and Justin graduated from Port Jeff High School. For years voted one of best 100 schools in nation.
My senior year. I had Spanish a couple of years. They put me in totally all girls’ Spanish class and I loved it. The teacher would say, “Now girls, and one gentleman.”
A history professor in high school from WW I tried to get Walter a history scholarship, but he was absent for a week and Walter didn’t receive scholarship.
Walter had a religious experience in New Hampshire. He was a junior or senior and in an Evangelical group in Woburn. Went to summer camp in Rummey. He had a manual job in his 20s and came home to attend a religious “Christian College.” He was considering going into teaching or nursing. Most of the other guys were in the military
He was not accepted into the military because of his burns. The war was over two months before his birthday. Walter was influenced by Wolcott Cutler, who was arector at Saint John’s Episcopal Church in Charleston. He said, “I will not kill anyone. I’m a pacifist.” The Globe said, we have “a traitor in our midst.”
Walter was a minister in three churches in New Jersey: Glenwood, McCaffee, and Lafayette. He lived in parsonage. There was a little village store. The churches were Baptist and Methodist.
Evelyn Phyllis Rice (McCleary) married Jim McCleary, a truck driver.
They lived in Medford, Massachusetts. They had four children: Jimmy who married Val their kids , Roger who married Mary Beth Erin, Elizabeth, and Patrick, Cathy who married Eddie DeSimone; their children are Stacy, Andrea, and Eddie; David was Evelyn and Jim’s youngest son. He lived with his parents and died in 2007. Millie mentioned Evelyn liked to make up stories.
Barbara Alta Rice, died of pancreatic cancer and had a daughter when she was a
teen. Millie kept in touch with her, and she came to Mildred’s funeral. Only Millie and Mildred knew about her being adopted. Millie said Barbara was slow and lax. Barbara and her husband had eight children: his children, her children, and their children. Millie mentioned something about getting social security. Millie said maybe she was married a second time.
Steve Murphy’s family:
Steve’s mother was Sarah Costello Murphy.
She was married to her husband (name). One or both of them may have been from County Galway in Ireland. Of all the Murphy’s, only Sarah came to Steve and Millie’s wedding because Millie was a protestant. She used to visit them in Maine. Wonderful photographs of her plowing and holding Michael has a baby. She lived in the first or second-story of a triple-decker in Somerville, Massachusetts with her daughter Margaret. She died in 1956.
Vincent died in WW II.
Margaret married Frank Decaro. Their daughter Julie Caruso married Angelo. They had three other children: Frank, Margie, and Joe Their son was Francis DeCaro.
Lawrence died of rheumatic fever a month before Steve and Millie got married.
Thomas Tucker married Kitsy.
Tucker had the same grey patch that Stephen and Devon have.
Their daughter, Barbara, got married in 1956.
John (Jack) was a policeman in Cambridge.
Steve married Millie in 1950.
Sally
Mary
Steve had a cousin ? named Sister Florita who became a nun and might served in Mexico.
June 16, 1916 Stephen (Steve) Joseph Murphy was born
March 30, 1926 – Mildred Anna Rice (Murphy) was born.
April 24, 1929? – Walter Earl Rice born.
June 28, 1928: Jim McCleary was born
September 18, 1929 Evelyn Phyllis Rice (McCleary) was born.
? Barbara Alta Rice was born.
Family lived in Boston, Charlestown, and Wood Street in Woburn.
[When looking at photo of William, Mildred, Millie, and Walter?]
Millie: The only reason you know it’s a girl is because of the buckle shoes.
Walter: I never you had shoes.
Millie: That’s right. Many times we didn’t.
Walter: We used to go to a place like Salvation army that was called Morgan Memorial to get our shoes. (transcribed from Walter’s 80th birthday DVD)
Food was scarce. The kids went to ? school. Mildred sent them each to church. They sang in the choir. Walter was severely burned by a radiator exploding.
George Lord’s wife often invited the children one at a time to come visit them. Millie was sent to a camp for a week and hated it. Walter went to a camp in New Hampshire and loved it. They visited Grandma Adam’s camp. There were three goats: Esmiralda, ? and ?.
[In phone call with Helen Dube, she remember] that Helen’s mom would invite each of the kids, one at a time, to come stay with them and would try to fatten them up with ice cream. She said Millie got so sick from the rich food. That had great fun together. She talked about having an ugly feet contest one day with Millie.
Millie: We never knew any better. Mama was a tough cookie. She was a provider. She was as tough as nails. She was a wonderful person. We didn’t think so at the time sometimes.
Evelyn: When she’d take a [chicken] up to a tree and slit its neck. Kill it. She’d put it down on the table and say strip it. I said what you do you mean strip it? Take all the feathers off.
Millie. We said is this one of your bantam. Oh no, no. This is the other one. Do you remember the barn that was up next to the house?
Walter. Yeah I took it down.
Millie: Mama and I took it down and you
Walter: And we made
Millie: We made a patio. Well trained. Mama decided we’d mix cement.
Someone: What an innovative family.
Someone: mutually supportive
Jim: You figure out how to do it.
Walter: I will say Mama almost never went to church. As kids she absolutely made sure
Millie: Oh yeah down Main Street . . . the little envelop, we were lucky if we had two pennies in it for the collection and we went every Sunday. We had to go and we had to report what we learned.
[They lived on 496 Main Street. There were four floors with no elevator. They lived in the front flat, and the train (the old T) ran every three minutes. The front door was glass (Giloed). There were lots of stairs. After Walter was burned, they went to Warren Chambers, the mayor of Cambridge. They hung the laundry on the roof. Mildred didn’t want to dry the clothes in the house. They had a two or three room apartment. They lived in front of 2nd floor and lived in back of 1st floor. Cat Meows. There was a bedroom off to the side looking out to Whity’s. Millie had bath. Maybe there were two bathrooms that people shared. When Mildred was in bedroom, there was a red string and door knob, and the radiator cap blew off and hit six-year-old Walter in the chest. Millie was nine. The mayor was Mayor Curly. They rushed Walter to Haymarket Reief Station and City Hospital. They couldn’t get admitted. Millie said, “Rob Peter to pay Paul.” Then Millie and Mildred went to see Mayor James Michael Curly who had shamracks on his souse. Secretaries said they could see the mayor. Mildred was determined. They were told he was to a meeting. Mildred ran into Mayor Curly. They were invited into his personal office. The mayor insisted the hospital “find a place for that child.”
Walter took a train to Providence. There was a residency at federal prison in Danbury. Millie waited at the train station to welcome Mayor Curly with band. There were 5000 people. Walter tapped Millie on the back.
At Warren, there was a little old lady in a corner room. Millie and Barbara fell into their father’s arms. Daddy flew down the stairs.
Walter and Millie talked about the Coconut Grove Fired.
Walter: And I sang in the choir
Laugher.
Millie: I did
Walter: I sang in the choir at St. John’s.
Millie: with the red robes
Walter: And we got a little envelop at the end of the month. I think each time we showed up we got five cents.
Millie: I got a
Everlyn: I got a cross
Millie: afterwards I got a bible. I sang in the choir. We went to Clarence Edward School and sang at Christmas in the corridors. It was…. Everyone else has a dull life.
When you need to do what you need to do, you do it. (transcribed from Walter’s 80th birthday DVD)
1934: Steve graduated from Somerville High School. He lived on 52 Webster Street.
1939: Millie saw Frank Sinatra concert at the RKO in Boston. The subway cost a nickel, and the movies cost a quarter.
1941: Millie was 16 when her father died.
She stopped school at 10th grade to get a job and help take care of her younger siblings and to help pay the bills, then went back to school in 11th grade but got another job in the middle of 11th. She was a prolific reader and had amazing understanding. She was self-taught. She worked at a factory where her clever fingers could construct the gas masks quickly and efficiently. Millie and her mother worked at the Oxford Press, which was near the railroad tracks in Medford. They shipped the products by railway. Millie made filters for gas masks to help keep the soldiers safe from poison gas. The older ladies were not happy with how quickly Millie could work. There was collar that they pushed together. The top was the size of a coffee can and they pressed it together to be ¼ inch filter. Millie also may have done something with blue prints. Millie and Mildred worked to pay for Walter’s education. There was a huge blower suspended from the ceiling. Pieces came lose. It was pure asbestos. Like white sow it came down. (hemofilious). The asbestos on the machine they worked under contributed to bad coughs and made colds worse. Walter suspects the asbestos contributed to health problems Mildred had later in life. Waltr talked about her weak lungs and hacking cough. Millie said, “I just did what I had to do” at Browning Laboratories. I asked the boss not to stand over my shoulder behind me.” When the blowers were shut off at six, the asbestos would settle down on them. Their hair and clothes were full of the asbestos. Walter (at 15 & 16) also worked during the summers and after school at the Oxford Press. He worked in the Press Room and placed letters. He was paid by the numbers he made. The company made large books for coffee tables on a small scale. The company was one Bromfield Road in Somerville (2nd & 3rd street). All three walked home together at lunch and at 6.
1943: Steve joined the navy
He shipped out of Boston, to Pittsburg, where they picked up ship at Kaiser Steel Works, went down the Ohio River and the Mississippi River to New Orleans, where they picked up balance of crew. Then they had a month of training and sea trials before they went to Havana, Cuba, and through the Panama Canal to the Pacific where they participated in the Philippines Campaign. He worked as Chief Commissary Steward on a LST 46 (landing ship tank). He ran the kitchen and was a gunner. He was in the New Hebrides, the Solomon Islands, and the Phillipines. They delivered tanks after the initial seaborne assault and picked up wounded. There are photographs of the natives carrying bombs.
September 16, 1944: Roger Wi1liam Rice’s plane goes down.
1944: William Roger Rice died.
1945: Moved to Woburn.
1946 to 1950: Walter reminiscing about attending Gordon College
Walter: I met this wonderful man and his wife. They could not pay a full time preacher. I was token protestant member of the St. John’s Catholic theological program. In WW II he became a missionary to China. He became friend of Chang Hi Check. He was on the long… march. Later he became director of chapel in Rangoon, England. In China, War broke out, Edward R Murrow was part of broadcast on that long march south. The minister sent his wife and children back to England and to the State. He and Audrey became life-long friends.
Walter: I didn’t have a dime to my name. Millie and Mama worked to put me through school. I was working for Cassidy for $30 a week making boxes. I worked four years in the kitchen. That wasn’t unusual. The biggest amount of money we ever had was a buck or two and we could get a toasted bagel at the corner store. Not a bagel but a fried Danish on the grill and a cup of coffee. This was end of war. It was 1946. Everyone in my class was a vet. Only two or three of us weren’t in draft. I was never called. The war ended just before I graduated.
Bill: Did you have a clue what you wanted to be.
Walter: I didn’t have a clue. Remember this was a small missionary school.
Did you live on campus”
We couldn’t afford to have him home.
I was in the party of Bill M on Christmas day. And his brother was best man in my wedding on New Year’s Day.
Evelyn: Mama said are we going to have Grace. Someone said: “Whose Grace? Laughter
Bill: How did you meet Audrey?
Walter: She was a junior, and I was a senior, and we were watching this stupid movie, and this other guy tried to edge me out, and I tried to edge him out. Then I asked her for a date. Audrey
Walter: We used to see him at Christmas.
Millie: [About Walter] He still has hair. I like your look, too.
Walter: My hair still grows very fast
Millie: A pony tail.
Alli: Didn’t get gray hair til 75.
Millie: Like me, my hair doesn’t get grey. (Transcribed from DVD]
1946?: Millie began working at the First National where Steve was a foreman.
“I went to work after war thing and gun thing. I went to work at First National which had big warehouse and big bakery. Steve (Murphy) was one of the foremen at the bakery. He was a pompous so and so. I was lucky enough to work down in the back part because the guys would let me clean the machines when nobody was looking. I said every high school should be next to a bakery so every high school kid has to work their butt off. Nice and warm. In the summer it’s glorious. They had a ladies shower and a men’s shower, and they told me never go up there and use it. The men’s shower, and if you ever had to go up and change your clothes and put on this stunning white thing that looked like a mumu all the way down to floor with a big belt and an apron and buttons. You put that on to go down and do your work. Once someone threw a man out of the men’s room naked. You know I was 18 years old and had never seen a man naked. I would work in the backroom and the guys knew they were a lot of bad men there so they would walk me through the warehouse because they thought this dumb kid doesn’t know any better. But I worked there for a couple of years, and I didn’t like Steve. He was one of the foremen/boss. He was a … I’m not gonna say that. All of a sudden he called when I quit work. I went to Winchester to work at welding little radio parts and making those things that go into big machines…There was a lady that did the engraving on the front of some machines on some ? scope. Some man asked me, “Do you think you could do that?” ‘She can show me.” This lady did one a day and I don’t know what she made [earned]. I went over and she taught me. They fired her. I could make three a day.”
Millie: Steve called one day because he knew I liked the beach. We were living in Woburn then. He’d come up and take me to the beach. I thought Oh God. He was 10 years older than me. What did he know about younger people, I thought. It was very nice. Your mother loved him.
Walter: The sun rose and set on him.
Millie: Oh my God. When we got a little better acquainted, Mama said, “Why don’t you let him take a shower before he gets dressed to go home? He had this salty bathing suit, sandy, so we. You remember
Walter: Where the shower was.
Millie: You remember the shower down stairs. You remember there was only one setting. I hear this primal scream. It was ice cold. He said you haven’t got any hot water. I said no.
Evelyn: That’s all we ever had.
(transcribed from DVD from Walter’s 80th birthday)
Millie often told the story of an early date with Steve where he was taking her out for lobster. Her friend taught her how to eat lobster so she would know how.
Millie told us that “Steve liked to dance. Sometimes, I’d get a little raucous. She would give me the look.” She loved Gene Kelly.
1946: Steve mustered out of the navy and returned to First National Bakery in
Somerville. He was a baker and foreman.
1949:
[When looking at photo of Millie in dress]
Walter: This is corner Tufts University.
Millie: I had a dress
Walter: Roger was in England in the service and he wanted a picture. I remember that very vividly. We went up there. I was a junior in Somerville High School. Then we moved to Woburn and I was in the senior class. (when Walter visited us in NH, he mentioned that it was hard to move as a senior, and he got involved in the church group and made good friends and roomed at Seminary with one of these friends.
Who is that at Missionary Training Institute. That’s Audrey.
Millie He graduated. (picture of baccalaureate degree)
Walter: 1949.
Millie: That was a good year.
Walter: I want you to know that I graduated from the same school twice. It was a three year school. I graduated. Then it became a four school. So I stay and graduated again. I was accepted at Taylor University. I was going there but when they put in fourth year I stayed right at ?. I was president of the class my senior year at Providence Bible Institute.
Ali: Both senior years you were president. (transcribed from DVD from Walter’s 80th birthday)
November 3, 1950: Millie married Steve Murphy
when she was 26 and he was 36. They married in November, 1950. After she married, Steve encouraged her to get her GED. They had an apartment in Portland, Maine, and he worked as the General Manager of the First National Bakery in Portland.
Millie lived next to “Gramma” Burcheron. She and Millie made Millie’s wedding suit. Millie’s good friend was Lucy.
Millie: Mother would tell us. When I married Steve, I went to Maine. Fortunately, we had the best neighbors. That’s when I learned to braid the rugs. Anna taught me. You learned to can vegetables. She had two little pigs. I said I’m not eating them. They butchered them and sent them down to us, and I said I’m not eating them. I loved pork, but I didn’t eat them. When you go some place difference, you learn from different things.
Walter: Did you do canning when you got married?
Millie: Yes I did. I had no clue how to do it, but my neighbor actually had a television show, a cooking show, the first one in Maine, the first one, a nice little lady. She had no airs. It was the first one they were trying out. And she said you have to can because I had a garden. One of the neighbors said he had a plow, and he said are you going to put the garden it. I said yes. About 8 by 10. The whole side of the house was [plowed] so I put a garden in and I had tomatoes, cucumbers, and string beans. And that’s when I canned. And nobody died. I mean it was interesting. (Transcribed from DVD from Walter’s 80th birthday party)
November 11, 1950: Evelyn married Jim McCleary.
They met at a roller rink called the Balla Rae. Uncle Jim was an usher. Evelyn was good at 10 pin bowling while Millie was a champion at candle pin bowling.
December 31, 1950 or January 1, 1951: Walter Rice married Audrey (born April 16).
1951: With his VA money, Steve and Millie bought a house in Cape Elizabeth, Maine
near the ocean. Their neighbors were Betty Davis and Gary Merrell. Michael was born there on July 31, 1951. Millie planted a large garden and helped supplement Steve’s income by clearning houses. She saved to earn a set of cutlery, one setting at a time. Her special friends werr Anna and Carl (Cullie) Wingren, Barbara and Jack Arnaldo, Bill and Marion MaCarthur, Sue and Frank Noyce. Gary Noyce was like a third son. Anna had her own cooking show. Anna teaches Millie to make braided rugs.
They liked to go to lots of dances at the Golf Club. It had live music.
July 31, 1951: Michael James Murphy was born.
Grandma Sarah Murphy lived in Somerville with daughter, Margaret.
1950s: When Millie recuperated from her miscarriages, Michael stayed with Anna
Wingreen, and she taught him how to cook in her wonderful kitchen with two stoves.
June of 1956: the Murphy family moved to Stoneham, Massachusetts,
where they lived across the street from Doris and Tom Corcoran. Doris became Millie’s best friend. “Earth to Doris” became an humorous phrase describing Doris who once asked “Do pigeons fly?”
They loved to sit out in the yard and drink iced coffee.
Steve worked for the First National Bakery in Somerville, Massachusetts as General Manager of the bakery. They belonged to the Golf Club and paid yearly dues.
March 11, 1958: Stephen was born in Stoneham on March 11, 1958.
Millie and Steve loved to get together with their friends and play golf: Tom and Doris Corcoran, Louise and Bob Dole, Lil and Adam Bushman. Many Sundays they went to the beach in Gloucester. They loved to go to parties where they dressed us up according to themes like Hawaiian or Roaring Twenties. Millie loved to bowl and won many trophies for Candle Pin bowling tournaments.
1960s: “It was Steve’s idea to get our corgi: Charlie Brown. Two days later, he wanted
to get rid of the dog.”
1968: The Murphy family moved to Portland where they lived on Gleckler Road.
Millie loved to bowl and won many trophies for Candle Pin bowling tournaments. She loved to dance and admired Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.She loved to dance and admired Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Steve lost his job in 1968. He worked temp jobs in small artisan bakeries in Somerville and Cambridge.
1969: Michael graduates from Deering High School in Portland, Maine.
Millie told Michael: “You did finally enjoy Deering after a bit” Michael had to leave Stoneham High school after junior year. Michael explained, “I went to Hamilton. I was recruited by principal who was scholar athlete. They gave me a scholarship.”
Steve began working at Nissen Bakery as a General Manager of Bakery.
1971. Steve lost his job at Nissen Bakery. He got a job working at the Arnold Bakery in
Smithfield, Rhode Island. He commuted to Maine and had apartment in Rhode Island.
1973: Michael graduated from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York
1974 to 1984: Steve began working at Seiler’s.
1976: Stephen graduated from Deering High School in Portland, Maine
1978: Donna and Dick Genaitis (Broderick) moved to Stoneham and Donna became
Millie’s best friend, a second daughter.
Millie remembered the crotchety old farmer named Rhuland. He owned the farm house and sold strawberries, but he sold land to developer. He had three stipulations:
1. Required ranch style homes or splits and no two-story houses.
2. The street had to be named after him.
3. The new parcels had to be on street named Randolph after his wife’s family.
May, 1979: Mildred Lord Smith Rice died. Cathy McCleary remembers her living on
Cedar Avenue in Somerville, parallel to Broadway near Park. Mildred would pay Roger to do shopping because he had girlfriend, but she wouldn’t pay Cathy. She had a push lawn mower. Cathy would take her to get flowers. She liked a beer now and then: Knickerbocker Beer or Carling Black Label.
1980: Stephen and Carolyn Burt graduated from University of Maine at Orono.
Stephen diagnosed with Hodgkin’s A-1. He came home to Stoneham, and Millie drove him to hospital for all treatments.
1976: Steve and Millie moved back to Stoneham, Massachusetts.
They lived next door to Donna Broderick, her best friend for many years.
Donna’s family basically adopted her for all major holiday and birthday celebrations. Millie was also close to Alvie and Rose, who lived next door. Donna has been integral in helping care for Millie recently and has been a daughter to her. Steve got a job working for Seillers Corporation in Waltham, Massachusestts. He ran the bakery.
Summer 1977: Cy and Stevie meet Steve and Millie, and Millie teaches Cy to eat lobster.
August 27, 1977: Michael Murphy married Cathy Eaton in Northfield, Ohio.
Cathy was daughter of Cyrus and Stevie Eaton. Her siblings are Cyrus Wind Dancer, John who married Beth Ferree, and Elizabeth who married and divorced John (Casey) Thigpen and William. Cyrus’s son is Nathaniel Eaton, John and Beth’s children are Charlie, Matt, and Chris. Cathy and Michael’s children are Colin and Devon. Elizabeth’s children are Shantin (married to Ashley and father of Tiger Lily and Django), Isaiah, and Sarah, mother of Kayden.)
1979: Mildred Smith (Lord) Rice died. She was 80. She was born on December 8, 1899.
November 26, 1982: Colin Eaton Murphy was born in Cleveland, Ohio
November 1983: Steve and Millie came with Stephen and Carolyn to Cleveland
for Thanksgiving. They brought lobster. Steve flew out ahead of others and stayed a week with Cathy and Michael. That was last time Cathy and Michael saw him. He always wanted to take Colin to Brigham’s and buy him ice cream with Jimmies. He saw Colin take his first steps.
January 1984: Steve Murphy had heart attack and was hospitalized.
At the hospital he suffered from terrible case of hiccups. He was unable to give up his addiction to cigarettes even in the hospital.
February 8, 1984: On the night before Steve died, he chatted on the phone for a long time with Cathy and Michael.
February 9, 1984: Stephen Joseph Murphy died of a heart attack in their kitchen in Stoneham. He has been given permission to go back to work, and he and Millie were planning to go walking at the mall to help him get his strength back.
February, 1984: Steve’s wake and funeral. Afterwards, family and friends gathered at
their home on 10 Randolph Road. Seiller’s catered the reception. They wrote a wonderful tribute to Steve. He had managed for ten years at Seiller’s the English Muffin and Bakery Departments of the Consumer Products Division. “Steve’s considerable management and baking skills, acquired over a long and distinguished career with First National Stores, Arnold’s and john J. Nissen Baking Company before coming to Seiler’s were the catalyst that made possible the transition from frozen food manufacturing to high volume, premium quality bakery operations. To many, Steve was simply an ‘all business’ baker with flour dust on his shoes and notes written on his baking hat. Those who were privileged to work for him and with him, will remember him best for the lessons he taught each day about how to live our lives and conduct our business with dedication and dignity.”
Summer 1984: Millie hosted bridal shower for Carolyn.
1984: Karl Winnegren made a blue rocking horse for Colin and a pull duck out of wood.
October 20, 1984: Stephen and Carolyn Burt were married in East Hampton, Mass.
She is the daughter of Carole and Jerry Burt. Her siblings are Donna Burt Pawlikowski, Jairus (Jack) Burt. She has two nieces Hillary Osgood, Melanie Burt one nephew, Collin Burt.
September 3, 1985: Devon Eaton Murphy was born in Cleveland, Ohio.
Millie made maternity clothes and diaper bags for young friends and family. She also crocheted and knitted as her mother had done.
November 1985: Millie, Stephen and Carolyn fly to Cleveland
to help Michael and Cathy get house ready to sell.
1987 to 2009 Millie travels to Asheville, NC, Annapolis, MD, and Bedford, NH
to visit her grandchildren. She makes them capes, tunics, and masks. Every year she is Nana the Santa and fills everyone’s stockings, buys us boxes of Rice Pilaf, and presents by the bushel full. Best bargains in town; most love in the universe.
Millie mows her lawn, tends her rock garden, helps her friends, sends cards to all she loves, frequents the Stoneham Library and reads five or six books a week, is a whiz at Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune and completes many word puzzles. She goes out on Stephen’s boat and visits Carolyn’s Ironstone Farm. Millie enjoys Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and birthdays with her two families: Stephen and Michael’s family and Donna’s family. Carolyn takes Millie to get materials for braiding rugs.
? Millie fell from large ? backyard tree she was pruning. After creeping across the yard, Millie’s crawled up the cement stairs and called Uncle Jim. She broke her wrist and hip????
Summer 1993: Great croquet tournament with Stevie and Cy Eaton in Bedford, NH.
March 2006: Stephen and Carolyn hosted Millie’s 80th birthday.
2007: David McCleary died.
May 2009: Stephen and Michael convince Millie to attend Walter’s 80th birthday. Evelyn, Millie, and Walter get together first time in many years at Pawley’ Island
As new young families moved onto or near Randolph Road, Millie became a surrogate grandmother to the Manzi family (Joey, Brenna, Vin and Kelly) who called her Murph and the Wood family (John, Lisa, Jonathan, Anthony & Thomas) who called her Tweetie. These families have visited Millie frequently and brought her much joy.
January 2011: As Millie’s Alzheimer’s worsened and her heart weakened,
Stephen and Carolyn, Michael and Cathy, Donna Broderick, and Amy ?, and all Millie’s neighbors made it possible for Millie to stay in her home on 10 Randolph Road in Stoneham. Many friends and family visited over the next 9 months.
In January Amy became a 24/7 caregiver for Millie. Mary substituted for Amy. Donna began coming three times a week. Carolyn, Michael, and Stephen went to countless hospital visits, organized all the care-giving and medication, got wheel chairs for Millie, had bathroom aids and stairway railings installed for Millie.
March 14, 2011: Audrey Doris Rice died surrounded by loving family.
July 2011: Walter Rice came to visit Millie and Evelyn.
September 4, 2011: Millie entered Kaplan Family Hospice House
on 78 Liberty Street in Danvers, MA.
September 9: Millie was alert for an hour, and her bed was wheeled outside her bedroom
partially into the patio where she talked about ways to improve the garden.
September 10, 2011: Many friends and family visited Millie.
Walter Rice and Linda Chase arrived in the early evening and Walter held a family prayer and blessing.
10 pm: Millie died. Cathy was holding her hand and Michael was by her side. The moon was full. The sky was bright
September 15, 2011: Millie’s service was held at the Barile Family Funeral Homes
in Stoneham. Patti Keele presided. One of Millie’s braided rugs welcomed friends and family. An arrangement of plants were on the casket and another of Millie’s braided rugs was placed by the kneeler. Chocolate kisses were a treat for everyone. A board of photos celebrating Millie and a DVD of photos celebrated Millie’s life triggered many memories and stories. Colin, Michael, and Stephen captured the essence of Millie in their remembrances.
Millie was buried next to Steve at the Lindenwood Cemetery in Stoneham,
Massachusetts. Family and friends were treated to chocolate kisses from a pottery bowl that Joan Nordstrom had made. Afterwards, everyone gathered at Polcari’s in Woburn, Massachusetts. Carolyn captured Millie’s love for gardens by arranging for violets and other plants to be given to special friends and family and giving Helen Dube daisies that looked like Helen’s painting of the daisies that Millie always hung above her television.
John Wood and his family bought Millie’s house first to rent and then added a second floor so his whole family could live there. Millie would be so pleased.