Mary Collins

Mary Patricia Cunniff Collins (June 1920 – November 5, 2010) was an American who served as the First Lady of Boston from 1960 until 1968 during the mayoral tenure of her husband John F. Collins. Collins was considered an active municipal first lady. Collins' activities during her husband's mayoralty included serving a chairwoman of March of Dimes and on the boards of Faulkner Hospital and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. Collins was also regarded as a key figure in her husband's political campaigns.

Early life Collins was born Mary Patricia Cunniff in June 1920 in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. Before her birth, Collins' parents had immigrated to the United States from County Galway, Ireland and settled in Roxbury.

Collins graduated from St. Joseph's Academy, located in the Roxbury neighborhood.

In September 1955, only ten days prior to the nonpartisan primary election, John F. Collins and three of the Collins's children (Patricia, John Jr., and Tommy) contracted the Polio virus. While the Collins children recovered without any lasting effects, John Collins Sr. was left partially paralyzed. Prognosticators had broadly seen him as an underdog, and did not expect him to advance to the general election. His advancement to the general election (denying Powers a widely-predicted second-place finish in the primary) and ultimate victory was a major political surprise. Collins played an active role in her husband's United States Senate campaign.

First Lady of Boston

Collins' husband was elected mayor of Boston in 1959. Collins is considered to have been a primary player in the success of her husband's candidacy. She also served on the boards of several institutions, including Faulkner Hospital and Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.

Later life In the 1990s, Collins and her husband moved to Falmouth, Massachusetts. Collins would live there for the next fifteen years. She served on the boards of several local nonprofits in Falmouth. Her husband died in 1995, leaving Collins a widow.

Collins died from a heart attack at the age of 90 on November 5, 2010, at the Atria Woodbriar Living Group assisted living facility in Falmouth. After her death, Raymond Flynn, a one-time mayor of Boston, remarked that Collins, "was a wonderful mother, wife, friend and great first lady of Boston. She and Mayor Collins represented all that was special about Boston." She was interred alongside her late husband at St. Joseph Cemetery in West Roxbury, Massachusetts.