Barbara Castro
Left Cuba for freedom and a better way of life
Barbara Castro of Chelsea died at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston following a brief illness on May 24.
Born and raised in Regla, Cuba, she grew up in Cuba as a member of a large blended family of the late Jose-Maria Fernandez and Tomasa Llerandi-Capaz. She married Orlando J. Castro and together with her husband began raising two sons in Cuba. Seeking freedom and a better way of life, the family left Cuba in 1971 and settled in Chelsea.
Barbara worked outside of the home for many years at New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham and later at the Bear Hill Nursing Home in Stoneham. She retired to Tampa with her husband for a time before returning to Chelsea and taking residence at Admirals Hill.
Barbara enjoyed gardening and housekeeping providing a happy and healthy home environment for her family. She was active for several years at the Chelsea Senior Center and was a faithful parishioner, frequent communicant and member of Chelsea’s St. Rose of Lima Community.
After sharing 61 years of marriage, Barbara was widowed four years ago at the passing of her beloved husband, Orlando. In addition to her husband and parents, Barbara was also preceded in death by a brother “Pecucho” Llerandi and several other siblings. She is lovingly survived by her two sons; Orlando E. Castro and his wife, Luisa of Chelsea and Ricardo L. Castro of Greer, SC. She remains the cherished grandmother of Elizabeth Castro-Diaz and Isbel Modica and adored great-grandmother of Isabella and Jorge Modica and the dear sister of Isabel Capaz and Miguel Capaz, both of Cuba.
Funeral arrangements were by the Frank A. Welsh & Sons Funeral Home , Chelsea. Interment was at Holy Cross Cemetery, Malden.
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Jack Fraser
Former president and treasurer of the New England Motor Rate Bureau; local community activist who helped revitalize Mary O’Malley Park
Jack W. Fraser, a longtime resident of Boston and Chelsea, passed away on May 24. He was 84 years old.
Mr. Fraser was a veteran of the US Army during atomic
testing in the South Pacific in the 1950’s. His death was a result of the exposure to the atomic radiation sustained there. He was formerly President and Treasurer of
the New England Motor Rate Bureau from which he retired in 1996 and at which time he moved to Admiral’s Hill in Chelsea. He was very active in the local community and helped the revitalization of the Mary O’Malley Park.
He was predeceased by his parents, Walter Fraser and Pauline Fraser Flye of Saugus and his brother James Fraser of Columbia, SC. He is survived by several nieces and nephews; his friend of nearly 36 years and his spouse, Michael J. Nappo of Chelsea and is also survived by a multitude of loving friends and neighbors.
Mr. Fraser’s remains have been cremated. A Mass of the Resurrection will be celebrated at St. Paul’s Episcopal Parish, 26 Washington St, Malden on Friday, June 2
at 11 a.m. Guests are invited to pay their respects beginning at 10 a.m. In lieu of flowers,
donations may be made to St. Paul’s Parish, the Kaplan Family Hospice House in Danvers or a charity of your choice. Arrangements by Boston Harborside Home of JS Waterman-Langone 617-536-4110
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Nicole Renee Denning
Licensed massage therapist and talented painter
Denning, Nicole Renee Denning of Everett died suddenly on May 28 at the age of 36.
Nicole was a life-long resident of Everett and a graduate of Everett High School. A kind, caring and compassionate person, Nicole was a friend to all. Her smile would light up a room, and she made a positive and lasting impression upon all those she encountered. Nicole worked for many years until the time of her death as a licensed massage therapist. Nicole was a talented painter, and in her free time, she derived great pleasure and pride in her interior decorating and artistic pursuits.
She was the precious daughter of Anna M. of Everett and the late Michael Denning and loving granddaughter of the late Aline and Robert “Red” Mitchell and the late Dorothea “Dolly” and Stephen Denning. Nicole is survived by her beloved daughter, Neeysa (the light of her life), her sister and brother-in-law, Keri and Paul Saccardo of Billerica, her brother Michael of Everett, her nieces and nephew, Corin and Paul Saccardo and Shaye Denning, her uncle, Robert Mitchell and his wife Erin of Peabody. Nicole will also be sadly missed by her many loving aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.
Private funeral arrangements by the Frank A. Welsh & Sons Funeral Home, Chelsea.
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John Stuart McConnell
Man with an amazing mind and a deep Catholic faith who worked to empower veterans
John Stuart McConnell, a veteran resident of Chelsea died Wednesday, May 17 at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, in Boston from complications of congestive heart failure. He was 56 years old.
A beloved husband, John McConnell is survived by his wife, Maria, whom he married in December of 2012. A devoted father, John had three adult children he lovingly reared in their early years, Zackary McConnell, Katie McConnell and Hilary McConnell. A loving brother, John leaves an elder sister Nancy Crowe Lynch (Jeff) and brother, Dan Crowe, Sr., and many nieces, nephews and cousins.
John was born in St. Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia to William Dan Crowe, Jr., and Mary Ruth (Harper) Crowe, but later took the name of his stepfather, P. Eugene McConnell. John was proud to be an honorably discharged U.S. Marine Corps veteran. He served for four years during the Cold War in military intelligence as a Cryptologic Russian Linguist.
John was a 1985 graduate of the Presidio of Monterey, Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in California, and the recipient of the DLI-FLC Martin J. Kellogg Award for exceptional achievement in the understanding of a foreign culture (Russia) and for academic achievement.
John was a kind, loving soul who enjoyed travel, foreign cultures, learning languages, books, laughter and scholarly pursuits. He held a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from the University of Maryland at College Park, a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from the University of Maine-Bangor, and also earned a foreign Bachelor of Science degree with Honors in Pure Chemistry (with a specialization in Organic Chemistry) from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
Prior to relocating to Boston, John worked professionally as an applied research chemist and as a science technical editor in California for life-science firms including Bio-Rad Laboratories, the world’s fifth largest life-science research laboratory. After relocating to the Boston area in 2008, John worked to advocate for and empower veterans. From 2008 to 2012 he worked on the Operations staff of the New England Center for Homeless Veterans and in 2010, he became a resident of the Chelsea Soldiers Home (CSH).
From 2011 to 2012 he succeeded his wife, a US Air Force officer veteran and also a resident of the Chelsea Soldiers Home, as Program Director of the UMass Boston Veterans Upward Bound Program located at the Chelsea Soldiers Home. In May of 2015, both John and his wife, Maria were elected to the 2015-2016 CSH Residents Council. John and his wife, Maria, a former US Air Force Intelligence Instructor and an Oxford University alumna, were the first married veteran couple to live at the Chelsea Soldiers Home albeit in separate dormitory residences throughout their four and a half years of married life there—a cross they bore together.
While on the CSH Residents Council, John used his excellent writing skills and his interest in military history to design, write and edit the first newsletter to be published by an elected CSH Residents Council. The 2015-2016 CSH Residents Council’s newsletter became an iconic feature of the 2015-2016 CSH Residents Council’s term of service. John was inspired by the mission and work of the Council, which sought to inform and empower Soldiers Home residents. For a time, he also served as the Council’s meeting chairman and strove to effect positive change at the Home to improve the lives of the Home’s poor, sick, elderly and disabled independent-living residents.
John also supported and assisted his wife, Maria in her volunteer work advocating for veterans and promoting Massachusetts public history at the Massachusetts State House. The last volunteer state house event the two hosted together was held in October of 2016 honoring the centennial birthday of former Massachusetts First Lady, the late Jessie Fay Sargent, the founder of the MA State House docents organization, the Doric Docents. The event was attended by the current MA First Lady, Lauren Baker. A May 2014 state house event at which John also assisted celebrated the 95th anniversary of the 1924 US Foreign Service Act–legislation that was pushed through Congress by a Massachusetts congressman and senator, and signed by President Calvin Coolidge, a former Massachusetts Governor. This historic MA state house event included a video message, and a special State Department guest speaker sent by Secretary of State John Kerry from Washington DC.
Having also lived for several years in Japan, John was fluent in Japanese and Russian. At the time of his death, he was a diligent scholar of the biblical languages of Latin, Hebrew and Greek. John also had a facility for French and German. He had a great mind and loved classical music, Gregorian chant, literature and history, and read volumes on subjects such as Lincoln, Shakespeare, Latin, logic, rhetoric, law, philosophy and commentaries by the Doctors of the Church. He loved browsing Brattle’s bookstore in downtown Boston for rare books on the Catholic Faith and the Roman Catholic Church prior to the 1960s. John’s superlative life accomplishment as a devout Catholic husband was in bringing his family to the Traditional Catholic Faith and in building a quintessential Catholic library that would support his family’s life and practice of the Catholic Faith as Traditional Roman Catholics. Prior to his heart attack, John began making rosaries when he wasn’t studying or advocating for a veterans-related cause.
Born into a Protestant family (First Baptist Church), John spent his whole life quietly dedicated to seeking the Truth and in becoming a dedicated servant of God. In April of 2010, he converted to Roman Catholicism. In October 2013, he and his wife Maria became a Traditional Roman Catholic family. His spirituality and his love of God and humanity were highly influenced by the charism, history and prayers of St. Francis of Assisi and the Franciscan Order.
One of John’s last wishes was to become a member of the Third Order of St. Francis, the tertiary or lay community of the Order, prior to his death. Honoring his wish, John was received into the Franciscan Third Order a month before his death on Easter Tuesday, April 18, 2017, by Rev. Francis Miller, OFM of Lafayette, Louisiana. John will be reposed in the brown habit of the Franciscan Order, with his Tertiary manual and his Franciscan Crown Rosary he always carried. John loved God and treasured his Catholic Faith. One of John’s last text messages to his wife was, “Love to all.”
A Traditional Roman Catholic Requiem Mass (Latin/English) was held at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, the Feast of Mary Immaculate Queen of Heaven, at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Traditional Roman Catholic Church located at 290 Main Street in Salem, New Hampshire. At 2:30 that afternoon, John was interred at the VA National Cemetery in Bourne, Massachusetts with U.S. Marine Corps honors. In accordance with his love of Scotland and his UK heritage, John asked that a Scottish bagpiper play “Scotland the Brave” at his interment. He also asked that the song “Crossing the Bar” be played in his memory–a song, the lyrics of which are derived from a poem of the same name by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
In lieu of flowers or other non-Traditional Catholic memorials, the family kindly asks that donations be mailed to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Salem, NH, or John’s widow for Traditional Catholic (Latin) Masses to be offered for the repose of John’s soul. Cards of sympathy may be sent to his widow, Maria McConnell, also a veteran, in residence at the Chelsea Soldiers Home, 91 Crest Avenue, Chelsea, MA 02150.
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Dennis Archdeacon
Retired air freight supervisor
Dennis J. Archdeacon passed away unexpectedly on Friday, May 26 at the Lahey Clinic Hospital in Burlington after suffering a sudden cardiac episode at his Woburn home. He was 55 years old.
Born and raised in Chelsea, a son of the late Charles L. and Maureen T. (Innes) Archdeacon), Dennis graduated from Chelsea High School. As a newlywed and young father, he settled in Medford raising and supporting his family. Dennis worked as an air-freight supervisor with ABX Logistics. He was recently medically disabled and retired. Dennis was a former Boy Scout Troop Leader for many years with Troop 416 in Medford.
He is lovingly survived by his children: Nicholas Archdeacon of Medford, Jared Archdeacon of Chelsea and Jade Archdeacon of Saugus. He was the dear brother of Michael Archdeacon and his wife, Elaine, Shawneen Moynihan and her husband Thomas, Kevin Archdeacon and his wife Nancy, Brian Archdeacon and his wife Karen and James Archdeacon and his wife Susan. He is also survived by many loving nieces, nephews, cousins and extended family members and friends.
Family and friends are invited to gather for a time of visitation and life tributes on Monday, June 5 from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Frank A. Welsh & Sons Funeral Home, 718 Broadway, Chelsea.
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Steven Wilton
Of New Hampshire, formerly of Chelsea
Steven T. Wilton of Salem, NH passed away on Friday, May 26 at his home. He was 51 years old.
Born in Chelsea, a son of Antoinette (Garoian) Mini and the late Raymond Wilton, Steven grew up in Chelsea and has been a resident of Salem since 2007. He worked for MPI Technology in Medford for 22 years, enjoyed going for walks, eating good food and working on his computer. Steven was a great guy who always looked out for and took great care of his mother. He will be deeply missed.
He is survived by his mother, Antoinette Mini of Salem and by two brothers: Michael John Wilton and Joseph Raymond Wilton. He was predeceased by his father, Raymond Wilton.
The Douglas & Johnson Funeral Home, Salem, NH is assisting the family with the arrangements. To send a message of condolence to the family, please view the obituary at www.douglasandjohnson.com.
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Anthony Scott, IV
Professional jockey and horse trainer
Anthony L. Scott, IV passed away suddenly at the Whidden Memorial Hospital in Everett on Saturday, May 27. He was 51 years old.
A son of Anthony L., III and Florence A. (Hartigan) Scott of Chelsea, he attended Revere public schools and was a Revere resident for most of his life. A professional jockey and horse trainer, he worked for many years at Suffolk Downs. His lifelong passion was horses and he traveled to various horse farms, race tracks and stables along the East Coast. In his lifetime Anthony was an avid sports fan and was a proud Hockey-Dad to his son.
He is survived by his parents and his beloved son, Anthony “AJ” Scott of Stoughton. He was the dear brother Antonette Jarvis and her husband, Robert of Haverhill, Robert Scott and his wife, Beate of Norway, Kreg Scott of Revere and the late Shane Scott. He is also survived by several nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles and extended family.
A Life Tribute and Memorial Service will be announced at a later date.