Alice Bernice (Milligan) Tompkins

ALICE BERNICE (MILLIGAN) TOMPKINS  (1902 - 1981) (4th generation)

With some notes on her mother EFFIE LOURAINE ROBBINS  (1880 - 1940)

Greetings to Dewey Morning readers,

     Don asked if I would like to contribute an article about our maternal grandmother on his genealogy page. What follows is part recollection and part notes incorporated from previously cited sources on Dewey Morning. What struck me in doing web searches, is that there is almost nothing other than factual information available on the Internet on either Alice or her mother, Effie.  Thus, the importance of Don's project to leave a narrative record of the past from those who still have that information is clear. If upon reading the following, you have other anecdotal information that can be added regarding the lives of Alice or Effie, please send it along to the blog where it can be archived.  ... Dee Kricker

Alice Bernice (Milligan) Tompkins

      My grandmother,  Alice Tompkins, was a remarkable woman whose life influenced my own in many ways. There was never a time that I could not seek refuge in her house whenever I had problems that seemed insurmountable. She was always there to lend an ear, to give support, or to send me or my cousins over to the corner store for a Fudgesicle, a Hostess cupcake or a candybar! How many times did she say, "Wait there, Del, I'll be right down," as she ascended the stairs to her bedroom, rummaged through one of her myriad jewelry boxes returning with "a little something" to give me. She told stories, laughed a lot and welcomed company to her table where the coffee pot was always ready.  It was so comforting to know that I would always be welcomed in her home and that she would find time for me.

     Each morning upon arising, she took delight in decorating herself in an array of coordinated bracelets, barrettes, necklaces, pins, rings and more rings overlaying her modest house dress garb. The ritual of getting "all dolled up" each day was how she expressed her personality and her mood. If she was sad or somber, her colors would be blacks or blues, but when she was in high spirits, she sparkled with reds, golds and silvers. Mostly costume jewelry given to her as gifts or scooped up at church rummage sales, the glittery display was impressive to a small grandchild.  What fun it was to poke through the bureaus and chests full of jewelry when she opened up her trove from time to time. Thus adorned, she greeted each day anew, ready for unannounced company of family or friends, ready for being a hostess, and ready to deal with the challenges of raising her last child, Wayne Edward.

     Six months before my birth, Wayne was born with Down syndrome, a genetic condition caused by an extra chromosome that occurs more frequently in women with late in life pregnancies. Both intellectual and developmental disabilities are characteristic of those with Down syndrome and in 1948, few educational or therapeutic supports were available other than institutionalization at a state facility. Alice decided against placing her special needs child in an institution, preferring to raise him at home among his loving family.  It is likely that had Wayne received early childhood services, he would have acquired functional language and vocational skills that would have allowed him some independence as he grew older. In 1983, life expectancy for such a child was 25 years; today with intervention it is 60 years. Thus, Wayne, who died at age 33, lived eight years longer than the average of his day.

     Because of the many needs associated with the care of Wayne, including significant delays in motor, language and cognitive skills, coupled with the illness and death of his father Harold, in August, 1953, Alice's life was profoundly impacted. She was widowed at age fifty-one with a five year old Down syndrome child, three other young boys aged 11, 14, and 17, and meager financial resources. In fact,  for many years after Harold's death, Alice received a cash donation at Christmas from a collection taken by  Harold's former colleagues at Hood Milk Company in Charlestown.  Alice's large extended family of siblings and her own children provided most of her emotional and material support over the years. Living in the other half of the duplex, her daughter, Viola, provided significant aid for Wayne's care, especially, as Alice and Wayne aged. Wayne became quite obese and at times, his behavior could be obstructive and unruly, but Alice never waned in her love and support of him.

     Looking back, I can only wonder how she coped, but I never saw her depressed a day in her life.  As a sensitive person, she was easily brought to tears of both joy and sadness, however, I never saw depression, self-pity, or anger.  Alice had a sweet temperament and though life was hard, she overcame challenges with grace and dignity.  No doubt her early life with a loving mother and spiritual family provided the foundation that kept her going. As her father, the Rev. Milligan wrote, “My first wife, Effie Louise Robbins, the mother of my children, was great at making over one child’s clothes to fit the next and had a wonderful way with corned beef hash.  She was also the best pie and bread maker and gave our children a good, healthy start."  Effie was very fondly remembered by all who knew her and I recall my mother, Vera, tell how she loved her Grandmother Effie. A telling memory is the story that one day when they lived in a parsonage in Maine, Rev. Herbert looked out the window and remarked that a man walking past his house had an overcoat just like his own. Effie then told him that it had been his coat, but that poor man needed one, so, she gave it to him. Many needy folks knew of Effie's kindness, as she always made room at the table or found an extra bed.

Effie Louraine (Robbins) Milligan

     By the time I was born in 1948, the eldest of what would become twenty-four grandchildren, Alice was 46 years old with eight children spanning the ages from twenty-six to six months.  Her last pregnancy overlapped that of her eldest daughter, my mother Vera, with a late-in-life birth not uncommon in those days. Within her own large family, Alice was the third born of six daughters and three brothers. Her mother, Effie, gave birth over a twenty-one year period and Alice's childbearing  days spanned twenty-six years.  Interestingly, both mother and daughter married at age eighteen and gave birth to their first child by age nineteen; both had experienced the loss of two children at birth or shortly thereafter; and both delivered their last child in their forties.  Effie and her daughter Alice were strong, productive women!

     Other similarities included the frequent moves that mother and daughter endured over their lifetimes.  While it is difficult to piece together exact times and locations, records indicate that both Effie and Alice lived in at least fifteen different places during their lifetimes. Having been called to the ministry, the Reverend Herbert Freeman Milligan brought his expanding family with him every three to six years when he was reassigned from parish to parish. From the time of her marriage to Herbert until the time she died at the age of 60 in 1940, Effie had lived in at least fifteen locations. However, it is likely she lived in several other places prior to her marriage, having been born in Syracuse, NY, and eventually living with her family in Somerville, MA and/or Everett, MA. Between the time of Alice's birth and her marriage, she had lived in seven towns, followed by at least eight other moves during her married life including multiple moves in Charlestown, MA and Medford, MA. One can only imagine what a relief it was for her to move into a home of her own when she and Harold bought a duplex house at 144-146 Village St., Reading, MA in the summer of 1942, pregnant with her next to last son, Richard, who would be born a few months later.

Harold and Alice Tompkins Family (Richard and Wayne not born at time of picture)

Front: (Alice) Lorraine, Harold, Tom, Alice, Don  Back: Vera, Milt, Viola

    The love of music was passed through the generations in the Milligan family and Alice exemplified this rich tradition her entire life. Her father was a talented musician who played many instruments and started his own orchestra as a young man. In addition to playing piano, Alice was gifted with a high soprano voice, much admired by all who heard her sing. She was the leading singer in her family, who along with three of her sisters formed a quartet of female classical musicians that was very popular in Clinton, Maine, where her father was pastor around 1911-1914. Rev. Milligan accompanied the quartet with Bertha, a mezzo-soprano, Leila, a contralto, and Chris a low alto. Alice could hit a high C without vibrato well into her later years.

     Some of my fondest memories of my grandmother involve music. She had an upright piano in her dining room that came alive when her hands flashed over the keys in grand flourishes of chords, as she sang to her own accompaniment. She had a pile of well-worn 78 rpm vinyl records that she played on her "Victrola" record cabinet. They included popular crooners of the time, as well as, holiday songs and old waltz tunes that she had collected. I remember at times she would dance around the room by herself, singing as she waltzed. From my earliest memories, I recall the many group sing-a-longs occasioned by a family party or the homecoming of one of her sons on leave from the service. A multi-generational choir of uncles, aunts and cousins converged around her kitchen table with children picking up the melodies and harmony from the adults. Most of the songs were popular Tin Pan Alley tunes, such as, Shine on Harvest Moon, When the Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbin' Along, I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover, Peg O' My Heart, By the Light of the Silvery Moon, among so many others. In season, Christmas carols were most favored with Silent Night at the top of the list. Alice's two sons, Milton and Tom, had beautiful solo voices, but all could sing up a storm in that small room.

     The old duplex house at 144-46 Village Street, Reading, MA still looks much like it did during Alice's lifetime. It anchors the neighborhood with its large blocky form and its speckled brown asphalt shingles typical of an earlier era. We were told that the house had been moved from Reading center near Main and Haven Streets where it once served as an office or municipal building. As kids, we cousins spent many summer evenings sitting on the high front steps watching the cars go by or

playing tag and hide-and-go-seek around the house in the dark as the grownups sat visiting on the front porch.  Entering the house through the front porch you would push open the old heavy door, rarely locked. With the creeky wooden stairway on the right, a long hall and front sitting room to the left, one generally found the action in the kitchen where Gram might be cooking up a pot of spaghetti, or more likely entertaining some of the family clan gathered around the table. It could be aunts, uncles, cousins or on  very special occasions, more distant relatives visiting from Maine or New York.

     When  Alice received a letter with notice that her sisters and/or the Reverend Herbert, himself, were going to pay a visit, it would be the topic of conversation for weeks in advance and long afterwards. Everyone would pitch in to clean the house, prepare food and clear the calendar for the special visit. When these infrequent reunions of her siblings, and/or father occurred, my grandmother was the happiest I ever saw her, and how sad she was when the visit ended. I distinctly remember how the tall Reverend in his imposing dark suit would preside over the rarely used table in the dining room. Prior to  the dinner being served, all would be silenced as he stood to offer his long pastoral blessing in his preacher's practiced voice. The Milligan daughters whom I recall, Chris, Bertha (Bite), Alice, Leila and Emma were an impressive group of white and silver-haired, large, solid women. There was much laughing and storytelling, followed by singing, of course. There were never enough chairs for everyone, but we all managed to crowd into the dining room to partake of the spectacle. 

     Though healthy her whole life, Alice's sight became impaired by cataracts late in life and she also developed a persistent stiffness in her neck that impacted her ability to turn her head to the right. In the last few years, her breathing became progressively more strained which she attributed to long term exposure to the smelly emissions from the smokestack at the nearby Boston Stove Foundry that wafted into her bedroom window when it was opened. Finally, on November, 29, 1981, Alice passed away refusing to be resuscitated by tubes that the doctors tried to put down her throat.  She clenched her jaws together and with a smile, began another journey.  She died only a month after the death of her daughter, Lorraine (d.10/19/1981), and the death of her son, Wayne (d. 10/06/1981).

 Alice Bernice Milligan Tompkins   -  Chronology notes

1898 Malden, MA         Herbert and Effie married February 19, 1898

1899 Everett, MA         Christena born     

1900 Somerville, MA    Herbertha (Bite) born

1902 Saugus, MA        Alice born   

1904 Saugus, MA         Herbert Freeman Jr.  born 

1906  Saugus, MA        Leila born  (Cliftondale section of Saugus)

1909  Saugus, MA        Emma  born

1912  Clinton, ME         Esther  born

1913 Clinton, ME          Ruth Born,  Died 1916 Waldoboro age 1.7 mos.

1917  Waldoboro, ME   Dexter born

1920  Easton, ME         Jonathan born

1922 Easton, ME          Thomas born/died one day later..mentioned in letter from Herbert to                                       Jon Milligan

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1902 Saugus, MA          Alice born

1921 Machias, ME          Alice married to Harold  July 7, 1921

1922  Easton, ME           Vera Milligan born 8/29/1922

1923  ?                            maybe a daughter born?

1924  New York City       Harold Jr. born 9/16/1924 (birth certificate) died abt. 1924                

1925 (Charlestown?)      Milton Bedford born 12/29/1925 born in Methuen, family lived in 

                                       Charlestown, MA?

1929 Charlestown, MA   Viola Mae born 9/28/1929

1933 Somerville, MA      Alice Lorraine born 7/4/1933

1936 Medford, MA         Thomas Herbert born 3/3/1936

1939 Woburn, MA          Donald Freeman born 12/13/1939

1942 Reading, MA         Richard David born 11/2/1942 (Winchester Hosp)

1948 Reading, MA         Wayne born 4/24/1948 (Winchester Hosp)

1989 Reading, MA         Alice Bernice (Milligan) Tompkins died 11/29/1981