Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Six Degrees Of Fran MacFawn
When you grow up in a town like Weymouth, Massachusetts, and stay there, you get to see firsthand, the changes, good and bad, that come over time. A few years ago, the “Town” Of Weymouth decided to change their form of government to a more “city-like” format that reflected the community’s growth and needs. I was largely unconcerned with what course the town took governmentally, but I did have a feeling that Weymouth was losing its small town charm. Weymouth has probably never been considered a small town, as town charm goes, but it had always felt like a town where everyone knows somebody, that knows somebody else. In recent years however, as more of my friends headed for rural digs, I found myself feeling a bit “left behind” and just when I thought that Weymouth was heading towards interminable urban aloofness I have reacquainted with friendly Fran MacFawn.
In my quest to research all the populace of Weymouth, I came to a street corner called “Laurence E. MacFawn Corner” and thusly to the door of his still energetic sister-in-law Fran. Fran’s daughter, Joanne and I had gone
to the Pratt School together, which was the initial mode of contact. I was hoping to get a few tid-bits of information regarding Laurence and be on my way. Approximately two hours later I had learned that Fran knew both my parents and that my mother’s brother, Jack Lundgren, a career Army man, was good friends with her departed husband Bruce MacFawn, a Marine veteran of the Korean War. Bruce’s father, Herbert T. MacFawn had been a custodian at the Pratt School for 27 years while his three boys, Laurence, Malcolm and Bruce went there, long before each served the United States in World War II and Korea. It appears as though Herbert was also a poet, and his work was published in 1955 under the title “The Pushbroom Philosopher”. Click here to read what Fran wrote about her father-in-law.
In the early 70’s my father, the original Stanley Ramon, got remarried to a woman named Bette Puopolo, who came from a large Italian family. The entire family went through the Weymouth Schools. Her brother Albert was a member of the famous 1950 Weymouth Gator Bowl football team and served on the Weymouth Fire Department many years. Younger brother Richard operates a candy store in Hingham and still lives in the family home “the Luigi Puopolo House” across from Legion Field. Bette’s sister Barbara was the long time owner-operator of Ford Florist. Why do I mention this? Well, Fran’s maiden name is Puopolo of course.
POSTED BY STAN on November 4, 2009
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Comments
I am so happy to read stories of Weymouth's past. Thank you to each and every one of you for the work you are doing to keep Weymouth history alive! And a special thank you to Keith Spain for contacting me.
Posted by: Joann MacFawn Trombley | November 9, 2009 06:09 AM