About Jeanne Rooney

Jeanne Rooney is the Editor in Chief for South Boston Online.
3 11, 2023

Stand-Out at Sr. Mary Veronica SND Park

2023-11-03T10:03:26-04:00November 3rd, 2023|Categories: Featured, News|Comments Off on Stand-Out at Sr. Mary Veronica SND Park

A South Boston Stand-Out took place and its main purpose was to address a serious community problem. The problem in question is the sale of South Boston’s Sr. Mary Veronica SND Park by the Archdiocese of Boston, which holds the title directly ever since St. Augustine Church closed.  The sale will be to a developer, who then intends to shut down the Park and build housing on it.  This Park is located on West Eighth Street between F and Grimes Streets.  It is open to everyone.  And it is small – at 50 by 100, it’s approximately 5,000 square feet.  Five basswood/linden trees encircled by small garden plots are located in the Park, as well as a couple of trees along the bordering sidewalk.  The Park [...]

2 11, 2023

Community Effort: Seven2 Foundation Rallies Support for Kids, Small Businesses

2023-11-02T15:09:44-04:00November 2nd, 2023|Categories: Featured, Happenings, Lifestyle|Comments Off on Community Effort: Seven2 Foundation Rallies Support for Kids, Small Businesses

By Ginger DeShaney Campbell Marchant has been in South Boston since March 2022, but he’s already making an impact on the neighborhood.  After getting the lay of the land last November and not wanting to step on any toes, Campbell launched his first Southie Kids Food Drive 12 days before Thanksgiving, raising $7,000 for 700 meals for kids at the Condon, Tynan, Excel High School, and more.  This year, his goal is to raise $30,000 for 2,000 meals for Boston Public Schools students and others in need. He’s already at $10,000 and has a Southie Kids Food Drive fundraiser at Capo on Nov. 9 from 6-9 p.m. “I’d like everyone to be aware of the work we are doing. We’ve put long hours into this [...]

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 [...]

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