She was a translator for the Red Cross during WWII. After her death at 99, Simonne Quigley is still helping others.
“Again, at the very end of her life she’s saying, ‘Here I want to be of help somehow.’”
Simonne Quigley was in the crowd of thousands who gathered in Boston to protest President Donald Trump’s immigration policies in 2017. In Copley Square, the then-96-year-old braved the January cold to carry a sign with the words, “We ALL belong here, we will DEFEND each other.”Her presence at the rally is an example of how the nonagenarian lived her life — how she “walked the walk and talked the talk” when it came to activism and public service, her daughter, Bernadette Quigley, told Boston.com in a recent interview. Simonne died peacefully on Jan. 18 in Newton. She was 99. “She was always interested in doing what was right and giving to others,” Quigley said of her mother.
Simonne Quigley at a 2017 rally in Copley Square.
Born in Paris, France, on Oct. 25, 1920, Simonne Quigley, née Lanowitz, worked as a translator for the American Red Cross during World War II. Following the war, she emigrated to the United States, where she continued in the ensuing decades to dedicate her time to helping others.
Her daughter said she believes the experience of surviving World War II had a lasting and profound effect on her mother.
“Like many World War II survivors, she didn’t like to talk about that period of her life,” said Bernadette Quigley. “I think that’s quite common of that time period, but I do think it must have shaped her so much. She was so instrumental in wanting to help so many kids in her lifetime and so many immigrants as well.”
When Simonne struck out for America on her own, she settled initially in New York City, where she met Robert Quigley on a blind date. They married in 1948 and were together for 46 years until his death in 1994.
After her husband’s death, Simonne moved to Newton, Massachusetts, in 1994 to be near one of her sons, Mark.
While raising their eight children outside New York in Westchester County, Simonne and her husband opened their home “constantly” to those in need, from foster children to foreign exchange students. She helped co-found Aunt Bessie’s Open Door in 1968, an all-volunteer daycare in Westchester County that aimed to serve underprivileged children and low-income families, and worked there for a number of years before working in the Peekskill Public School system in the library.
The mother of eight was also a “fervent activist and organizer” for civil rights during the late ’60s and ’70s, her daughter said, and was a devoted consumer of newspapers and television news. She frequently wrote letters to the editor for newspapers on both coasts.
After Simonne’s death, Quigley shared the news on Facebook.
Simonne Quigley’s passport photo.
“My mama was always most in her element when she could be helpful to her children, grandchildren or strangers on the street,” she wrote.
Quigley told Boston.com that after writing the post, she heard from people who shared memories of her mother from Aunt Bessie’s and the school district, and how knowing her affected them.
“She was quite reserved even though she was so inspirational to so many people,” Quigley said of her mother.
The influence of Simonne’s dedication to public service and helping those in need is clear in the paths her children have taken, Quigley said. At a young age, she recalled being struck by her parents’ convictions and the lessons they taught their children — to stand up against “racism and hypocrisy.”
Simonne’s commitment to making a difference to others will live on after her passing, her daughter said. In 1999, when she was 79, Simonne requested in her DNR order that her body be donated to science, joking in her “wry way” about “getting into Harvard” after she passed away, Quigley said.
Harvard did accept her, her daughter said. Simonne also requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the nonprofit started by her son, Keith Quigley, called Positive Understandable Coaching for Kidz (PUCKidz), which provides children with private and group lessons in athletics.
“I think it’s such a beautiful thing of service to others,” Bernadette Quigley said of her mother’s final wishes. “That again, at the very end of her life she’s saying, ‘Here I want to be of help somehow.’”
She is survived by her children, Robert Quigley, Maureen Foster, Michele Quigley, Diane Quigley-Clune, Mark Quigley, Bernadette Quigley, Sharon Quigley, and Keith Quigley, as well as her 11 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Read the family-submitted obituary for Simonne Quigley here.
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