Mary E. Crozier

Mary E. (Clayton) Crozier died peacefully on January 9, 2019 at the age of 94, in Belmont, MA surrounded by her loving family. Ms. Crozier was married to Dr. Robert E. Crozier, a gastroenterologist at the Lahey Clinic for 58 years, until his passing on September 2, 2017. They have two children, Matthew and Julia.

Mary Clayton Crozier had a long career in journalism and communication beginning in Western Massachusetts and then in the metropolitan Boston area, where she lived for over 60 years. She leaves behind a strong legacy of commitment to the values of community building, diversity, inclusivity and generosity.

Mary was a caring and generous woman of many talents. She had an infectious sense of humor, a love of storytelling, a passion for promoting the unique talents and contributions of others from all cultural and ethnic backgrounds and a strong belief in the equality and dignity of all people.

Mary was born in Holyoke Massachusetts on August 13, 1924 to parents, Martin Joseph Clayton, who worked as a ship’s steward and Irene Beaudry Clayton, who worked on the assembly lines of the National Blank Book Company in Holyoke MA.

She was raised in Holyoke by her mother and grandmother in a thriving multi-ethnic neighborhood where many of her friends were first generation immigrants of Polish, Italian, Greek and German descent. This environment had a deep impact on her appreciation of different perspectives, religious faiths and cultures, and her interest in understanding and supporting diversity throughout her life.

Mary attributed her love of storytelling and her strong commitment to life-long learning to her grandmother, Mary Sullivan Beaudry, who helped to raise her. Mary Beaudry had been a stowaway who came from Killarney Ireland alone, at the age of 9, in the late 1800’s and migrated to Holyoke where she had learned to read and write while working six days a week, 12 hours a day in the textile mills.

Watching her ‘Nana’ read the Boston Post faithfully each morning, Mary was inspired by her grandmother’s tenacity to learn and to thrive in spite of the challenges she faced as an Irish Immigrant and child factory worker.

Mary’s interest in newspaper reporting began while attending Holyoke High School, where she wrote on the school’s newspaper. After graduating in 1941 at the age of 16, she attended Trinity College for one year and then returned to Holyoke, where she worked as a receptionist for the Springfield Daily News.

Her ‘big break’ came one day when all the reporters were covering other assignments. Mary, then 18, left her receptionist post to cover a four-alarm fire. After presenting her story to the managing editor, she was offered a job as a reporter and accepted the position for the summer.

That fall she began her studies at Mount Holyoke College majoring in Political Science and writing for the Mount Holyoke Press Bureau. During summers, she worked at the Holyoke Transcript Telegram. Eleanor Roosevelt visited Mount Holyoke in Mary’s senior year and she had the opportunity to meet and interview her.

In 1946 after her graduation, she attended the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she interned with the Chicago Press Bureau. She returned to Holyoke in 1949 to continue writing for the Holyoke Transcript Telegram, where she covered labor relations, local politics and education.

Mary’s interest in finding common values between traditions and faiths was of deep importance to her in her life. In 1950, she was one of several founding members of the Western Massachusetts chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. During this time, she toured Holyoke to connect with religious leaders of all faiths to discuss building bridges between communities and organized a march in Holyoke focusing on unity between people of differing faiths. Mary also attended the School for Jewish Studies at Ravi Shalom Synagogue in Holyoke.

Mary was eager to expand her horizons as an investigative reporter. In 1952, The Holyoke Transcript Telegram offered herself and another reporter funding for a one-month investigative tour of Yugoslavia, through the Experiment in International Living, where she lived with a family and wrote about their day to day lives under Communist rule. Her tour included a group interview with the Communist dictator, Joseph Broz Tito.

In 1953, following a well-received feature in The Boston Globe about Tom Yawkey, Mary was offered a position as a sports reporter, an unusual offer for the day. She declined this position but soon accepted a position as feature writer with the Boston Sunday Advertiser and the Hearst newspapers, including the Hearst Headline Services. She moved to 122 Bowdoin Street, next to the State House in Boston.

Over the course of her newspaper career, Mary interviewed many national and international figures in the areas of politics, sports, literature and film such as Jackie Kennedy, Ted Williams, Rocky Marciano, Hoagie Carmichael and Thornton Burgess, to name a few.

Mary Clayton Crozier was recognized for her distinct contributions as a reporter. She received a citation of New England Newspaper Woman of the Year from the New England Women’s Press Association for her series entitled “Our Teenagers - Right or Wrong.” She also received the Publicity Club of New England Award for National Media Coverage in Television and Print for her series on older Americans and their caregivers. Her series focusing on the nursing shortage in New England brought about the establishment of a legislative commission by then Massachusetts Governor, Christian Herter.

In 1958, Mary Clayton met Robert E. Crozier, a gastroenterologist with Lahey Clinic (now Lahey Hospital Medical Center). They were married in 1959 and settled in the Back Bay where they raised their two children. Mary became a member of the Neighborhood Association where she was involved for over 50 years. She was also one of five members appointed to the Back Bay Architectural Commission when it was formed in 1967.

While devoting time to raising her children, Mary also wrote feature articles for the Boston Sunday Advertiser until the mid-1960’s and then focused her attention on work in women’s and civil rights organizations. In 1965, Mary walked from Roxbury to the Boston Common with Martin Luther King, on his first march in the northern states. In the late 60’s, Mary worked at the Bridge Fund, an organization founded by community leaders and parents to offer educational alternatives to Boston children in the Black community.

Mary was always looking to grow and expand in her career. In the mid-1970’s, Mary turned towards work the area of communications and public relations, producing a TV series on preventive medicine and mental health for the Massachusetts Hospital Association and organized news media seminars on health issues for TV and edited The Monday Report, a statewide association newsletter circulated to health related organizations.

In 1983, Mary Clayton Crozier was able to put her years of experience, talent, tenacity and commitment to equality to work when joining the newly formed Boston Neighborhood Network (BNN) as Public Relations Director. At BNN, Mary help people from neighborhoods across the City as they learned to tell their stories and put them on local cable television channels. While working at BNN, she enthusiastically promoted the producers, their programs, and championed BNN’s mission: to celebrate the city’s ethnic and cultural diversity, train community members in TV production and encourage the expression of First Amendment rights. For her talent, dedication, and never-ending enthusiasm she received BNN’s first Spirit of Community Media Award to honor her service to the Boston community.

Following her retirement from Boston Neighborhood Network in 2005, Mary continued to offer her talent and time working on a variety of projects. For many years she worked closely with Nancy Purbeck, co-founder of Positive People Day, a day devoted to kindness and compassion.

Mary was also active in and enthusiastic about local and state politics. She was a member of the Democratic Ward 5 Committee in Boston and focused on promoting a variety of local and state wide campaigns over the years. In 2008 and 2012, she volunteered for Barack Obama’s U.S. Presidential campaign in Boston and New Hampshire.

Mary was not only a smart and creative person, but also someone who truly valued others and worked for the people and causes she cared about to help make a better world. Her kindness and generosity impacted many people’s lives.

She will be greatly missed by her family and friends and is survived by her son, Matthew Crozier of York, Maine, her daughter, Julia Crozier of Newton, Massachusetts, half-sister Judy Bouse and husband, Robert of Seattle, Washington and her beloved cousin, Constance McCarthy of Springfield, MA. She is survived by her first cousins from Massachusetts: Walter Clayton; Marty Clayton; Skip Clayton; Michael Clayton; Bobby Clayton; Patty Clayton and Mary Jane Kisiel as well as her first cousins from Connecticut: Raymond LaFlamme; Bruce LaFlamme and Gary LaFlamme and first cousin, Maryanne Kwiatowski of Warwick, New Jersey. She is survived also by her many caring nieces and nephews of Portland Maine: Kathy Crosson; Greg Crozier; David Crosson; Ann Tyler; Beth Crozier; Colleen Phillips; Pat Marshall; Phillip Marshall; Deb Silberstein; Joey Crozier and Robert Crozier as well as her dear friends Curtis and Veda Henderson and many others who were touched by her charm, wit and grace.

Special thanks are owed to the staff of Belmont Manor where she has resided since 2016, to the Compassionate Care Hospice staff and to Mary’s companions and friends Cindy Newsom, Janice McClellan, Denise Thorud, Melissa Cole and Annette Woodard for their care and support of Mary.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Salvation Army, in Mary’s memory.