Eleanor A. Daley

Eleanor Anne Fay Daley was born on April 8, 1922, in South Boston. 

Daughter of Thomas J. Fay, who died when she was three, and Mary Agnes Fay, she was the youngest of seven children: Thomas W. Fay, Mary Fay Donovan, Charles J. Fay, Francis Fay, and Mildred C. Fay. It was revealed only in the last few days of her life that Ellie’s sister, Catherine died as a toddler. She survived all of her siblings and all lifelong friends with one exception, her cousin and closest friend, Eleanor “Gigi” Gallagher Bishop of Lowell, Massachusetts. Most of her life she was known as Ellie, but after the birth of her first grandchild, Rebecca, she became Mimi to friends and family. 

She spent her childhood in South Boston and Dorchester during the Roaring Twenties and pre-war Thirties, and began working at the age of sixteen (although she convinced management she was eighteen) at Gillette’s packaging plant in South Boston; there she met Frank Daley, and in 1943 became his war-bride, and traveled throughout the United States while Frank trained as a radio technician-gunner. She always spoke fondly of living in Army-Air Force housing in Kansas and especially in Colorado. Later on in life, when her granddaughter, Rebecca moved a few miles from there, she told stories of hiking near Pike’s Peak. She was, in fact, a great story-teller, regaling children, grandchildren and friends from a treasure of memories and tales. She started working part-time as a cocktail waitress and never let her schedule impair her devotion to three children, while Frank was working two jobs. They had a plan to leave the big city, so she worked at the most popular lounges in the South Shore of the Fifties and Sixties: The Beachcomber, Blinstrub’s and the Pony Room. In 1960, she and Frank bought and renovated a home in Hull, where they moved with the children. In 1969, Frank and she divorced and she became a homeowner in Quincy residing there with KaDee, her youngest daughter, and employed as a residential housekeeper. In 2004, she returned to live in Hull at the Daley family home until this past Christmas, when she passed away while in hospice care at Harbor House of Hingham. She survived several ailments: two heart attacks, a number of strokes, cancer, and dementia, and lived to be well past 93. Although she outlived most of them, many people who knew her back when could have testified that as a young woman, she was always the most beautiful and “alive” person wherever she went, and as an elder citizen shone as the beautiful and peaceful soul wherever she was. Her family is grateful to the Hull police and fire department and their frequent responses to her needs for emergency assistance. Additionally, we thank her friend and caretaker, Debra Picot, the South Shore VNA, Meals-on-Wheels, and most especially for the loving kindness of nurses and staff at the Harbor House. 

She is survived by her son, Michael Daley of Anacortes, Washington, and his wife, Kathy Prunty, as well as their son and her only grandson, Theo Daley of Austin, Texas; by her daughter Maureen Louzan of Cohasset and Mimi’s granddaughters, Rebecca Louzan of Lyons, Colorado, and Molly Louzan of Cohasset; and by her cherished daughter, KaDee Kathleen Mary Daley of Braintree and Hull; by her niece, Faye “Snookie” Sullivan of Foxboro, Massachusetts; by her nephew, Charles Fay of Windsor Locks, Connecticut, his wife, Gale Fay and their sons; by her great-nieces and great-nephews, Kathy Annis and her siblings, and Debbie and David Marinelle. Eleanor died peacefully at Harbor House in Hingham on December 26, 2015, surrounded by her loving family.

There will be a memorial on Pike’s Peak this Spring or Summer to celebrate Ellie’s life with her friends and family out West.

In lieu of flowers, donations to the ARC of the South Shore to help support Eleanor Daley’s daughter are warmly appreciated. Donations can be mailed “in memory of Eleanor Daley” to the ARC of the South Shore Residential Support Office, 574 Main Street, Weymouth MA, 02190.