In the last few years of her life, Grandma seemed to have internal problems.
On her golden wedding anniversary, in October 1944, she participated in the
ceremony at the church, joined in the celebratory breakfast with the family, then
excused herself to go upstairs to bed. After that, she was frequently “ailing" but hung
on. In 1947, she attended my wedding but was not feeling well enough to go to the
wedding breakfast. Later that year she became increasingly ill and took to her bed.
In September, my mother asked my wife and me if we could come down from New
York where we were living because Grandma was “very poorly" and might not live
much longer. On September 7, the doctor said Mary Wallace was indeed dying. All
the members of the immediate family who lived in Cumberland and I gathered in
Grandma’s bedroom - by then she was comatose - and each one kissed her. Then she
died. The certificate said “myocarditis."
Grandma was brought back to the house and placed in the tiny living room. I
was asked to lead the recitation of the rosary as was then traditional at Catholic
wakes. As we repeated over and over the prayer to the Blessed Mother, Hail, Mary,
full of grace, the Lord is with thee...I realized with certainty that the Lord was with
this Mary, too.
The Wallace Children
Marie Wallace, born in 1895, went from the first through the fourth grades to
Cumberland Street public school, then to Saints Peter and Paul’s parochial school for
the fifth grade in order to make her First Communion. She studied piano with the
Sisters at Saints Peter and Paul’s and, the story goes, was to teach her sisters in turn.
For a few years she accompanied the silent movies in a local theater. There,
presumably, she met John Hoffman, a violinist, whom she married and they had a
daughter, Ruth Lee (married Edward Joyce and William “Ike" Cessna). John died of
pneumonia rather soon and mother and daughter went back home to live. In about
1924, Marie married Arthur Beaulieu, by whom she had six children, most of them
born in Cumberland: Marie Louise (m. John McLean), Arthur Jr. (m. Adalee Brant),
George (“Pete") (m. Alice Schumaker), Theodore Wallace (“Wally") (m. Vernita
Monahan), Alan (m. Donna Detherow) and Margaret Mary (m. Ricardo Hizon). In
the early 1940’s, the Beaulieus lived for a while in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, where
Margaret Mary was born, but ultimately moved to Baltimore, Maryland. Marie gave
private piano lessons and sometimes entertained family and friends playing popular
songs of her time. She died in Baltimore in 1978. Arthur died in Baltimore in 1983.
John Joseph Wallace, born March 27, 1897, received his elementary education
(grades 1 - 5) at Cumberland Street public school. He married George “Georgie"
Sanner in 1923. Their four daughters were Martha Lee (m. Robert Seafeld and Paul
Diamond), Doris Jean (m. Arthur Miller and Charles Lyman), Shirley Ann (m. Frank
Chamberlain) and Mary Elizabeth (m. Robert Wagner and Ralph Vernon). He was
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