About Jeanne Rooney

Jeanne Rooney is the Editor in Chief for South Boston Online.
27 10, 2023

Over Thirty and Under Three: Bob Monahan

2023-10-27T08:47:09-04:00October 27th, 2023|Categories: Lifestyle|Comments Off on Over Thirty and Under Three: Bob Monahan

The series features residents who have made SB home for more than thirty years or fewer than three by alternating weeks.) South Boston non-profit leader and engaged community member, Bob Monahan, has made South Boston home for all of his sixty-nine years. He has never stopped appreciating and working toward better lives for the families in a familiar and changing landscape. It is here that his values and aspirations developed, and his contributions and professional life shaped. At every bend, he credits his late mother, Marion Monahan. “Growing up as one of five brothers, we played sports, went to see whatever was happening in the city, played in the streets. What really mattered though were the examples of people giving back, and that hasn’t changed,” [...]

24 10, 2023

Over Thirty and Under Three: Julia Sprofera

2023-10-24T09:44:16-04:00October 24th, 2023|Categories: Featured, Lifestyle|Comments Off on Over Thirty and Under Three: Julia Sprofera

Twenty-five-year-old Julia Sprofera grew up in Medfield, went to college at Wake Forest in North Carolina, worked in Charlotte, but it seems as if she was destined to call South Boston home. “I knew I had to come “home” to Massachusetts after working for a year in Charlotte and so looked at a lot of neighborhoods. South Boston appealed to me because it was more of a community,” she said. Moving from apartment to apartment over three years, she is busy without seeming pressured. Working at Arbella Insurance, and pursuing an MBA at Boston College, Julia listens, observes, and engages. She has developed an appreciation of South Boston, and a recognition that it is not always easy for those who have been in the community [...]

19 10, 2023

Lifting Spirits of Deployed Soldiers, One Care Package at a Time

2023-10-19T18:33:54-04:00October 19th, 2023|Categories: Featured, Happenings, Lifestyle|Comments Off on Lifting Spirits of Deployed Soldiers, One Care Package at a Time

By Ginger DeShaney Coming from a military family, Kelly Conroy has always been passionate about taking care of soldiers. “Our troops don't get what they need and certainly not what they deserve,” said the lifelong South Bostonian. “I feel like it's something we can do just to lift them up. Some of them are just so young and they're so far away from home. “It's such a big sacrifice on everyone. I just figured, you know, if I can do a little something, why not?” Kelly isn’t doing a little something. She’s doing a BIG something. After years of sending care packages to a handful of soldiers, she has kicked it up several notches by becoming a local organizer for the AdoptaPlatoon organization. Her Adopt [...]

17 10, 2023

Joseph’s Bakery Relocated and Open as Annie’s Bakery and Café

2023-10-17T11:12:30-04:00October 17th, 2023|Categories: Business, Featured|Comments Off on Joseph’s Bakery Relocated and Open as Annie’s Bakery and Café

By Carol Masshardt If the opening day of October 7, 2023 is any indication, South Boston is returning the affection for the transformation of Joseph’s Bakery on K. St. to the new location at the corner of L. and Broadway. Annie Nikollo, and her husband, Vani, with daughter, Vicky, were determined to carry on a long tradition started in Greece, and to the continue the work they love. Annie’s has much that is well-loved and familiar, but with a refreshing new space. “This is what I love and I’m excited. We will have most of the old favorites, cupcakes, cannoli, all baked goods, and pies for Thanksgiving, made right here along with more breakfast sandwiches and some lunch choices. What is most important to me [...]

6 10, 2023

Over Thirty and Under Three: Dolly Pickup

2023-10-06T09:06:24-04:00October 6th, 2023|Categories: Featured, Lifestyle|Comments Off on Over Thirty and Under Three: Dolly Pickup

Dolly Pickup has lived all of her sixty-three years in South Boston and could write her own book about a community she knows from experience at four 02127 addresses. Asked about almost anything and she quickly recollects the history of an area, business, family or landscape. One of the eight children, with grandparents and extended family houses away, has raised four daughters in South Boston, ran her own day care program, and commutes to her job at the Copley Fairmount Hotel. She chooses to focus on her joy and pride in all of life, and not on the challenges that required her to work hard and stay on course. “We had it all,” she said, recounting days of skating on a flooded “M” St. Park, [...]

29 09, 2023

Over Thirty and Under Three

2023-09-29T08:42:00-04:00September 29th, 2023|Categories: Featured, Lifestyle|Comments Off on Over Thirty and Under Three

(This series features those who have made South Boston home for thirty years plus and those who are new to the neighborhood.) If you are ever tempted to think that all new neighbors to South Boston, bring ill-regard and annoyance to the treasured neighborhood, you haven’t met Alabama born and raised, Alan Barlow. At twenty-seven, he completed undergraduate and graduate degrees in Alabama, is a Physician’s Assistant and visited forty-eight states. He has now landed in South Boston, the only place he has lived outside of Mobile. “I absolutely love my job at Mass. Eye and Ear,” he said. “Everyone who works there seems to want to be there. I randomly applied through Indeed, and interviewed at other Boston places, too, but I couldn’t have [...]

15 09, 2023

Over Thirty Years in South Boston Featuring: Lynn Morris

2023-09-15T08:36:24-04:00September 15th, 2023|Categories: Featured, Lifestyle|Comments Off on Over Thirty Years in South Boston Featuring: Lynn Morris

Over Thirty Years in South Boston Featuring: Lynn Morris By Carol Masshardt (This series will introduce people who have called South Boston home for more than thirty years and others for three and under) Any neighborhood would be lucky to have a Lynn Morris, and South Boston has been that for the past fifty-eight years. Working for over twenty-five years in Corporate and Event Marketing and Graphic Design, Lynn still manages to keep a loving and astute eye on the neighborhood where she was born, raised and lives. She represents the best of South Boston to those who have known her for generations and the many who move in from different states, cities, and countries. Her roots are deep but that doesn’t imply a lack [...]

8 09, 2023

Women in Trades: Latisha McQueen

2023-09-08T09:22:48-04:00September 8th, 2023|Categories: Business, Featured|Comments Off on Women in Trades: Latisha McQueen

Carpenter Latisha McQueen 50, has built a life around her trade, including having a hand in the new Old Colony Development. Both practical and thoughtful, she is as at home in beautiful buildings, including the Boston Public Library, as in construction sites. “It hasn’t always been easy, but I do love what I do, and it gave me a way to support my son,” she said. “Carpentry in particular means understanding numbers, and math, and sometimes you get on a job that you know is going right, and you can feel proud to be part of it. Of all the trades, carpentry was the best because I love beautiful buildings.” Life, beyond work, has had its share of challenges for Latisha, who grew up in [...]

5 08, 2023

Back Home

2023-08-05T11:10:21-04:00August 5th, 2023|Categories: Education, Featured, Happenings, Lifestyle|Comments Off on Back Home

Josh Davis Returns to Southie to Take Helm at Boys & Girls Club By Ginger DeShaney Josh Davis’ career has come full circle. His first job after graduating from Tulane with a degree in Sociology was Education Director at the Edgerley Family South Boston Boys & Girls Club from 2001-2007. He then held several other positions with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, including Director at the Orchard Gardens and Dearborn Clubs, before coming back to Southie to replace Harry Duvall as Executive Director.  “Ever since I was able to work, I was working with children in some capacity,” said Josh, who credits his passion to his parents. “Just the idea of giving back to the community has always been instilled in me since [...]

4 08, 2023

Lilah’s Crystals and Tarot Open on West Broadway

2023-08-04T12:42:34-04:00August 4th, 2023|Categories: Business, Featured|Comments Off on Lilah’s Crystals and Tarot Open on West Broadway

By Carol Masshardt Healing and relaxation are indisputably needed, and If Lilah Evans is correct, there will be a customer base in South Boston just looking for a holistic way to deal with stress. Offering Tarot Card readings, Meditation, Reiki, (transfer energy through palm healing) Chakra (exploring centers of vital energy in the body) are age old practices now available in the neighborhood. “We moved here in May after being on Tremont St. in downtown for twenty-seven years. The building was sold to developers, and we needed a new location. My older son had been in school at Tynan, and I thought it might work,” she said. Lilah found the location, former home of Neatly Nested, on the corner of E. and West Broadway and [...]

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