Lucy Lampron, Page Two

Eugene married again, this time to Clara, and worked many years as a meat cutter in a store on Market Street. “I knew him when I was a little boy,” Edmunds said. “He was old and had a heart condition and didn’t get around that well. I have a picture of him holding up this huge sturgeon down at the dock. He had a garden down in the Meadows section of the city. He’d go there with his friends and pitch a tent and fish and get stuff out of the garden and bring it back home, and Grandma (Clara) would can them.”

Gail Newton, another grandchild, who lives in North Carolina, told me that when her mother Marguerite was just a young teenager, she was a personal maid to "Mama" Wiggins, who owned Wiggins Tavern. The famous tavern still operates in the city’s fanciest hotel.

“Right after grandmother Lucy died, my grandfather Eugene had trouble getting babysitters. He said that one time, my mother, still just a little child, came running into church completely undressed except for a T-shirt, and she was terribly dirty. So he ended up taking the children to Brightside (Catholic orphange in Holyoke). She was there with her brothers. Brightside thought my grandfather was wealthy. I don’t know how often he got there to see them, but every time he did, the staff would tell him the children needed new shoes. My mother got married in Northampton in 1943. After my father died, she sold her house and moved in with me. She died in 1997.”

Lucy Lampron is buried at St. Mary’s Cemetery in the Florence section of Northampton, along with her husband, who died in 1950. She had at least six children, Marguerite being the last one to die. Her parents are buried at St. Brigid’s Cemetery in nearby Easthampton. In her obituary in the Gazette, it says in part: “All who knew her were impressed by her great love of children. Although she was devoted to her home, she was always ready to go to all who were in trouble or sorrow.” And now we can add, “A photo of her is in the Library of Congress.”