Aunt, Activist, Humanitarian
It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved Aunt, Helen Theresa (Keene) Cox, who left us on Tuesday morning, August 4, 2026, at the Brudnick Center for Living in Peabody, surrounded by the love and comfort of her family. She was 94 years of age.
Helen Cox, originally from Chelsea, proudly spent her whole adulthood in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston. She was the eldest of nine children of Richard and Maria (Sanchez) Keene. She leaves behind two sisters, Margaret Griffin of Saugus and Clarie Siegel of New Hampshire, brother-in-law James Lang of New Hampshire;; sisters in-law Jeanne Keene of Ohio and Donna Keene of Saugus and her much loved surrogate daughter, Tracey Cusick of Boston. She was preceded in death by her long-time sweetheart and companion, Robert Mullen and her siblings: Lawrence (Larry) Keene, Joseph Keene, Mary Lang, John Keene, Michael Keene, and Francis Keene. Helen also leaves behind the 89 nieces, nephews, grand-nephews and grand-nieces she loved so much and of whom she would swiftly mention to anyone who encountered her.
Helen was adored by her nephews and nieces and their children and grandchildren. Very recently her youngest great-grand nieces sent Helen homemade cards letting her know that they were thinking of her.
Helen never missed acknowledging a graduation, wedding or other personal milestone for her nieces and nephews. She would be quick to hand them a little bit of cash if she knew they were traveling. They have many fond memories of Helen taking them out to plays, special events, celebratory lunches or just a meal to catch up. Helen always put others before herself. While she collected and held on to many different things that others might find perplexing, it was always in the spirit of truly believing someone else might need or want these items one day.
The family would also like to express their gratitude for the many staff at the Brudnick Center, particularly those in the Clarendon House, who took a special interest in our dear Aunt Helen and cared for her with such dignity, compassion and respect over the last several months.
Helen lived in the Fenway for more than 60 years, and her fierce love for the neighborhood meant that she had a hand in—and an opinion about —every local cause or fight. She combined a gift for pinpointing injustice with a keen sense of how to address it. Her voluminous address book was legendary, as were her phone calls to friends and politicians about an election, a ballot question, a community meeting.
Add innate curiosity, unfiltered opinions on everything, and an instinct for networking before the word was even invented, and you can see why friends called her the “Mayor of The Fenway.”
Helen knew the band of Fenway activists who in the 1960s and ’70s killed a disastrous urban renewal plan and established institutions like Fenway Health and the Fenway CDC. That experience laid the groundwork for decades of activism, but she gave the credit to her job at the Department of Public Welfare. Assigned to staff one of the first citizen welfare advisory boards in Massachusetts, Helen learned to organize while helping the board campaign for better, more dignified delivery of human services and working to assemble a statewide coalition to fight benefit cuts.
Helen worked with equal passion for housing justice. She’d seen first-hand how landlords routinely gouged their tenants—her friends and neighbors—and let their buildings deteriorate throughout the 1970s and ’80s. She helped organize a tenant rent strike and for years fought to protect rent control and prevent condominium conversions.
Her deepest organizational commitment was to The Fenway News, one of the earliest and among the last remaining locally controlled community newspapers in Massachusetts. She sat on its board from its founding in 1975 until 2025. For years she wrote a chatty news digest in her distinctive voice (and with her distinctive punctuation), recruited countless contributors, and campaigned to keep a focus on issues of social justice as the neighborhood gentrified in the 1990’s and early 2000’s.
One neighborhood wasn’t big enough for Helen, who threw herself into electing progressive political candidates in the city and state. Above all, she ardently supported David Scondras, her friend and neighbor, when he first ran for City Council in the early 1980’s. Although she worked on many campaigns, her heart held a special place for State Rep. Mel King, who ran for mayor in 1983; State Rep. Byron Rushing; and council candidates Felix Arroyo, Jack Hall, and Gary Dotterman. Many of her neighbors relied on her recommendations for candidates seeking the most obscure offices, because she always knew why you should (or shouldn’t) support them.
Helen’s love for the Fenway came down to this: She saw her community as a second family, and she felt deep concern for neighbors facing health, financial, or emotional problems. She had a gift for making people feel that the stories of their lives mattered.
Helen was a true humanitarian.
Relatives and friends attended visiting hours in the Carafa Family Funeral Home, 389 Washington Ave., Chelsea on Sunday, August 9 and her funeral service was conducted in the Funeral Home on Monday, August 10th with a Prayer Service followed by Interment at Holy Cross Cemetery in Malden.
Family and friends are encouraged to visit carafafuneralhome.com to share memories and offer condolences by means of the online guest book or to send a personalized sympathy card.