Lighting the Mourning Candle again
Saturday November 9, 2019, 2:00 p.m.
My silence and prayers at that time will be for Mary Holmes, another one of those great women who have strengthened my christian faith, and called forth my better angels. I was privileged to be her student, pastor and rector for six years.
Memorial service for Mary Holmes:
Saturday November 9, 2019, 2 pm
St James’s Episcopal Church
1991 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge MA 02140
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| Mary and her daughter Michelle |
Mary as remembered by Michelle.
Mary Holmes was born
Sept. 25, 1931, the 5th and last child of John Beresford
Marshall and Ruth Etta (Woods) Marshall. Her older siblings were Charles,
Richard, Ruth, and Lillian. She also had older half-brothers from her father:
John, Stanley, and Andrew.
They lived on the 2nd floor
of the family homestead at 194 Franklin St. in the Central Square area of
Cambridge MA. On the first floor lived her mother’s sister Grace (Woods)
Sato and her husband and children. Another sister, Esther (Woods) Henry, and
her family lived in the house in the back, at 192 Franklin St.
Mary’s father John sadly
died when she was 5 years old. As this was the Great Depression, the family was
quite poor, but resourceful. Mary remembers that she and her siblings
would follow the coal delivery truck and pick up the pieces of coal that blew
off to take home to burn in their furnace.
One summer, Mary’s older
siblings got the chance to attend a summer sleep-away camp for underprivileged
black children. They felt that since they were all going, Mary should get out
of the city too, even at the age of 5. This was quite a formative experience as
she later encouraged her own children, and some of her grandchildren to
experience the independence of summer camp. It probably also influenced her
later work with camps and youth.
When Mary was 12, she
received a pen-pal through her Girl Scout troop. She was an English Girl
Guide named Gerda Styles. This led to a life-long friendship and visits to each
other’s country.
Mary graduated from what
is now called Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School. Both her mother and her
grandson Tano graduated from the same school. After high school, Mary had
several jobs as a youth worker, continuing even after her marriage to Kenneth
Holmes in 1954.
She worked for the
Charlestown Boys and Girls Club, Camp Lapham in Ashby, MA, and The Red Barn
Camp in Marshfield, MA. The Red Barn was a summer camp for at-risk
teenage girls. In 1958, she brought along her 3-year-old daughter Michelle and
newborn son David to The Red Barn. Michelle remembers having many loving
babysitters from among those teenage girls!
In 2010, the tables were
turned as Mary was staff aide to Michelle as her daughter ran a regional Wood
Badge, the highest-level training course for adult leaders in the Boy Scouts of
America, at Camp Sayre in Milton, MA.
After the birth of her
third child Philip, Mary worked as a school crossing guard near their home in
West Medford MA. She later worked as an assistant to the head coach of
the Buckingham Browne and Nichols School, which allowed her grandson Omar to
attend day camp there at a very reduced rate.
Mary always loved
knitting and crocheting hats, sweaters, mittens, and afghans for her family
members, often in their school or favorite sports team colors. She also
made these items for charity. She was a life-long Episcopalian, and sang
for years in the choir. She was one of the founding members of the Watoto Club,
a social networking club for mostly black women, long before Facebook was
invented. The Watotos still meet.
Mary’s grandchildren are
Omar, Tano, Johnathan, Leianne, Steven, Lauren, Lucy, and Henry. Her
great-grandchildren are Taylor, Jackson, and Fiona.
---------------------------------
"Bet you wish you'd known Mary". (jmp)
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