Helen Marie “HM” Booth died on Wednesday, February 22, 2017. She was the daughter of the late Francis J. and Helen (Corrigan) Connors and the widow of Roger Van Doren Booth. She leaves her cousins, Alice Marie Connors Callo of Chesapeake, Virginia and Dominic Corrigan, M.D. of Middletown, Rhode Island.
Mrs. Booth graduated from the former Sacred Hearts Academy, which she always remembered fondly and where she made lifelong friends. She attended Boston University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and then attended Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where she earned a Master of Arts degree in Speech and Drama. Some years later she received another Master of Arts degree in Speech Communication from Emerson College in Boston.
Mrs. Booth had a lifelong interest in and love of teaching, traveling and the performing arts. She began her teaching career at the old B.M.C. Durfee High School as a teacher of English. She also taught at the N.B. Borden School and the new Durfee High School, but it was at Bristol Community College that she was most comfortable and where she spent more than twenty-five years as an Instructor in Speech and Communications. She so enjoyed her classes there and was always delighted to talk with students whom she had taught decades before. She loved the students and she loved B.C.C. She also enjoyed two different stints working for the University of Maryland at Air Force bases in Japan and the Azores. These experiences combined two of her favorite experiences: teaching and travel. Travel was a large part of her life, starting when she was very young.
Later, with her husband, she lived in Brazil, Columbia, Venezuela and Argentina. She spent fifteen years overseas and was always an active participant in the life of expatriates, wherever she was. When she returned to Fall River, she became involved in life in her home town and over the years served as a Director of the B.C.C. Foundation, Trustee of the Fall River Public Library and its Foundation, President of The Little Theater, President of the Women’s Guild of Holy Name Church and member of the Quequechan Club, Fall River Historical Society, Arts Unlimited, Fall River Cultural Council and served as a lector at Holy Name Church for thirty years. Mrs. Booth was very happy in her life and enjoyed her many students in public speaking, her travels and especially her friends.
Her visitation will be held on Monday, February 27, 2017 from 9:30 to 10:30 AM in the WARING-SULLIVAN HOME AT CHERRY PLACE, 178 Winter St., Fall River with a Funeral Mass at 11:00 AM in Holy Name Church, 709 Hanover St., Fall River. Burial in St. Patrick’s Cemetery. For tributes and online registration, www.waring-sullivan.com.
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