Ashland Historical Society

KAY

Greetings!

My name is Steve Leacu. I am a lifelong resident of Ashland, and a member of the Ashland Historical Society. I have the privilege of following Kay Powers in reporting the ‘Stories of Ashland’ for the Directions, and I can honestly say that anyone who has lived in Ashland for any length of time must have either read Kay’s articles or met her personally. If you haven’t, trust me, you don’t know what you are missing. Everyone I know would always open their copy of Directions each month and jump to ‘Stories of Ashland’ to see what Kay found of interest! After 30 years of reporting the life and times of people like you and me, from colonial times to today, Kay has decided to retire the pen. My only wish is that I can entertain you as consistently as she did. Don’t worry, she is still very active, and remains a historical advisor to all of us at the Society. She has also promised that there are a lot of stories still to be told, so I have my work cut out for me. Well, having said all this, it seems only fitting that the historian herself should also be a historical person of interest, and my first ‘Story of Ashland’.

 Kay Powers was born Catherine Hogan in Schenectady, New York , where her father worked for the General Electric Company. At age three, she moved to her grandmother’s home in West Roxbury, moving on to Roslindale, and then to Weymouth where she started school. The move to Weymouth is a point of interest where the Polio epidemic was raging and people were moving away from the urban areas, especially in the summertime when the disease was particularly contagious.

The Depression made life difficult for all, but the one thing Kay impressed upon me is that it affected everyone. It wasn’t like you were the only person who didn’t have new clothes, a fancy car, or any car at all for that matter. More often than not you wore hand me downs. And everyone walked, unless they had a fair distance to go, where fortunately, there was an abundance of train and bus service. Buses ran on a half-hour schedule, and there were at least four to six train trips to Boston in the morning.

 It was during this time that Kay moved to Church Court in Ashland. Her Dad was able to find employment at Telechron in 1934 after working for Stone and Webster in Boston . Kay’s father was an engineer, but due to the financial hardships of the time he would chop wood and other jobs to supplement the family income. Every penny counted, and they counted every penny.

After a few more moves, and a short stay in Syracuse , NY , Kay moved back to Church Court in Ashland and stayed there until the house was sold in 1937. The family thenmoved to a house on Main St. next to the now Matarese’s Funeral Home (the house no longer exists). Around 1950, Kay’s mother became ill, and the family decided the Main St. house was too big for them. Fortunately, Kay’s sister Marie and her husband had purchased a large house on Fountain St. and provided an apartment for Kay and her parents.

It was during their stay on Fountain St. that Kay met her husband Frank. Frank was a teacher at the Newton College of Sacred Heart, and worked with the husband of a friend of Kay’s sister. They met on the 21^st of September, became engaged on the 21^st of December, and were married on the 21^st of June, 1952. They purchased a three bedroom ranch on Eliot St. where their four children were born. Kay’s dad finally retired and bought the house on Fountain St. from Marie, and Marie bought a home on Indian Spring Rd. next to Dante DeFazio (everyone remembers Dante, don’t you?). Eventually Marie sold the house on Indian Spring Rd. and moved to New Hampshire . Kay’s dad also moved to Marie’s property, and sold the house on Fountain St.

Kay always had an interest in people. During the late 30’s and early 40’s she was the choir director for the St. Cecilia’s Band. The band was a trumpet and drum corp. Lessons were 25 cents a week, the trumpets cost $10.00 each, and the drums were provided by the parish. Having raw talent, and I emphasize raw, the band of 50 or so kids practiced the trumpet under Mr. Fred Adams. When practicing their marching skills, the police chief would often lead them down the street although I am not sure whom he was protecting at that point; the neighbors from the band, or the band from the neighbors. They eventually were permitted to march at the end of the Memorial Day parade after some arm twisting of the Memorial Day Committee by Father Donahue. All was not lost though. The St. Cecilia’s Band went on to become an award winning unit.

With her leadership skills, and graduation from Worcester State Teacher’s College in 1948 with a Bachelor of Science in Education, Kay taught for years in Needham , and at the Little Folk Farm kindergarten. She also became a library aide. All of this, and her interest in history, made her a perfect addition to the Ashland Historical Society. Kay and her husband Frank are past presidents of the society, and taught a history of Ashland for the AECC (Ashland Educational Community Center) for about 4 years. The AECC had a newsletter that later became what is now known as the Ashland Directions. Under Editor Cathy Cardiff, Kay began to write the ‘Stories of Ashland’. Drawing from publications like the Ashland Advertiser, Kay scanned the local pages for articles of interest that included important people of the time, historical events, and an occasional story of just the average traveler on the walk of life. She also liked to interview people that lived during an era she was profiling for her articles saying their first-hand knowledge was invaluable.

Well, there you have a small glimpse of a historical person in Ashland. My only hope is that 50 or 100 years from now someone will be scanning the archived copies of the Directions for a human interest story and find Kay’s. Modern medical miracles aside, I doubt I’ll be there for a first-hand account.

Good luck Kay. We’ll miss you.