Obituary - Boston Globe - 14 January 2007

Margaret Davidson (Durfee) Mosher

Margaret Davidson (Durfee) Mosher, 93 years and 11 months, passed away in her sleep at home on January 2, 2007.

She is survived by her son, Richard and wife Carol; her daughter Celia and husband Craig Marion; her son Walter and wife, Marian; and her four grandchildren and six great grandchildren.

Margaret D.D. Mosher was born January 23, 1913 in Jamaica Plain, the daughter of Walter C. and Elizabeth Davidson Durfee.

Margaret was very active in many Jamaica Plain community organizations. She gave of her time generously to the Community House, The Girl Scouts of America, St. John's Episcopal Church, The Footlight Club and the Jamaica Plain Tuesday Club and had served in all the officer positions, including President on two occasions. She gave many years of service to the Mass. Federation of Women's clubs and was chairperson for Mass. American Heritage. Margaret committed countless hours to researching the history of Jamaica Plain, the Loring Greenough House and her family home.

As an expression of sympathy, memorial contributions in Margaret's memory may be made to the Jamaica Plain Tuesday Club, Loring Greenough House Preservation Foundation. In addition the family wishes to recognize and thank the team of devoted nurses who cared for Margaret during the last two years.

A Memorial Service will be held at a future date at Forest Hills Cemetery. Internment of ashes will be in Pawtucket, RI. where her father, Walter C. Durfee is also interned. Brady & Fallon Funeral Home 617-524-0861

Biography - Boston Globe

Margaret Mosher, mainstay of historical groups
By Bryan Marquard, Globe Staff | January 22, 2007

The eldest of three children in a family of financial means, Margaret Mosher lived a life of privilege -- to a point.

"Here was a gal who came out of society, but never wanted to live that role. She never did," said her son Richard of Annapolis, Md. "Today I guess you'd call her a rebel, but she did it in her own way."

Though she eloped secretly at 18, Mrs. Mosher returned to her family's Greek Revival house in Jamaica Plain when she divorced and became a single mother at the end of World War II.

She had an unfailing sense of what was proper, her son said, but also preferred to be called "Peg," once she felt she could depart from the formality of "Margaret."

Mrs. Mosher, a mainstay of local women's and historical organizations, died in her sleep in her family's home Jan. 2 after a period of failing health. She was 93 and had been devoted to researching and preserving the historic Loring-Greenough House in her neighborhood.

"She was very true to who she was," said her daughter, Celia Marion of Venice, Fla. "She didn't play games, so to speak. Although she was extremely gracious to people, she was very strong willed."

Richard Mosher added that his mother's "tongue could be sharper than a rapier. She was very quick with it. You always knew where you stood with her; there was no holding back."

"And it was zero profanity -- three- and four-syllable words," said her other son, Walter of Tucson. "It was always, 'What did she just say?'"

Margaret Davidson Durfee was born in Jamaica Plain, though her mother did not travel by ambulance that snowy January day. "The livery came and the sleigh took her up to the Faulkner Hospital," Walter said. "That's how they got there in 1913 -- pre-automobile of any significance, anyway."

Past generations had provided the means that would support her though much of her life. Her grandparents had holdings in banking and coal; her father worked in textiles.

"She was embarrassed because her folks would have her grandfather's chauffeur drive her to school in the Pierce-Arrow ," Richard said. "She insisted on being dropped off two blocks away so her friends wouldn't see her in the car."

If Mrs. Mosher had a rebellious streak, her grandmother was there to lend a hand, taking her to Hawaii as a teenager.

"We have a signed brass statue of a Hawaiian surfer dude, if you will," Richard said. "She was in Hawaii surfing at the age of 16. She spent her days with this surfer dude."

And when she turned 18, "she drove across the county in a red Pontiac convertible with her future husband's sister," he said. "Two gals with the top down as they whizzed around the country. Her grandmother gave her the car and said have fun, basically. Maybe my great-grandmother was living vicariously through her."

Unbeknownst to her parents, she had already eloped with F. Scott Mosher -- a secret she kept until a decade ago when their children came upon a small white Bible.

"It's in there -- the secret marriage was recorded by the minister," her son said.

"Apparently she married again when she was 21 in a more appropriate ceremony," her daughter said.

She and Mosher began a family and lived in Bridgewater, then divorced in 1945. Mrs. Mosher took her three children back to her parents' house in Jamaica Plain.

Along with raising her children, she volunteered with numerous organizations, among them the Girl Scouts, the Footlight Club theatre group, state women's and historic preservation organizations, and the neighborhood's Tuesday Club, which owns and operates the Loring-Greenough House, a 1760 landmark.

Her volunteer work fed a lifelong fascination with what had happened in decades and centuries past.

"First I was curious, then excited about feeling a real appreciation of history as an expression of people," she told the Boston Herald American nearly 30 years ago.

"I asked her once, 'Why didn't you get a job?' She said, 'My father told me I had a job. My job was to raise you three children,'" her son Walter said.

Mrs. Mosher, he said, taught her children to teach themselves, in part by example.

"She wasn't a college graduate, but she was such a consummate reader and an avid reader that we would put her up against any doctor," he said. "You'd always see her with a 900-page book. She read at night before she went to bed."

In the Mosher household, he added, using knowledge to gain independence was also valued.

"I think that was one of the best gifts she gave us," he said. "I knew the MTA system like the back of my hand when I was an 8-year-old. Probably by the age of 10 I knew most of Boston. I didn't know how powerful a gift that was at the time until I was an adult. I wasn't afraid of going anywhere."

In addition to her daughter Celia and her sons Richard and Walter, Mrs. Mosher leaves two grandsons; two granddaughters; five great-granddaughters; and a great-grandson.

A service will be announced.