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17
Jun

Eileen (Haydock) Merullo

Eileen Haydock Merullo, 95, died peacefully at home on June 17. Born and raised on Olive Street in Revere to loving parents James and Catherine Haydock and among a close family of five sisters and one brother, she excelled in sports from an early age, playing ice hockey with the boys, winning the city tennis championship in 1939 at age 16, and, as a high school senior, starring at third base on the Olympets softball team alongside several women who went on to play in the famous League of Their Own.

She graduated from Revere High School in 1940 and received her B.S. from Boston University’s Sargent College in 1944. Immediately upon graduation she enlisted in the United States Army and served as a registered physical therapist in the Army Medical Corps, working with wounded soldiers in the Amputation Center at Walter Reed hospital in Washington, D.C. Always proud of her military service, she was a lifetime member of the Revere chapter of the Disabled American Veterans, and a charter member of Women in Military Service of America, as well as other veterans’ organizations. In 2013, she initiated the effort to place a stone memorial honoring Revere’s 145 women WWII veterans. She helped design the memorial, raised funds, and presided over the ceremony, which was held the day after her 91st birthday. That same year she was voted Revere’s Woman of the Year and honored in a ceremony at the Massachusetts State House.

During the post-WWII polio epidemic, Eileen courageously volunteered for a year in a polio clinic in Illinois, then returned home to work as a physical therapist at the Chelsea Naval Hospital, where she was head of the rehabilitation clinic and where she donated her invention of a pronation device.

In 1951 she wed the late attorney and city councilman Roland A. Merullo and they were blessed with 31 happy years of marriage and three sons, Roland, Jr., Steven, and Kenneth. After raising her children with love and attention, Eileen went back to work as a science teacher in the Revere Public Schools and proudly held that position for 25 years. While teaching, she earned two Master’s degrees, one from Salem State in Administration, and one from Fitchburg State in Computer Science. She also studied Braille, learned to hook rugs and make stained glass, took a course on the Holocaust, loved to read, and repair small appliances, and, until age 84, was an avid and skilled golfer at Bellevue Golf Club in Melrose.

Upon her retirement from Lincoln School, Eileen volunteered as a teacher’s aide at McKinley School in a first grade classroom where she, herself, had been a student 70 years earlier. She also worked part-time for another 25 years at the Lighthouse Nursing Home as receptionist.

Eileen Merullo selflessly loved and served her family, her country, and her city, and was constantly looking for ways to help others. She will be deeply missed by her surviving sons, Roland and Steven, her devoted daughters-in-law, Amanda and Theresa, her loving grandchildren, Nicole, Steve, Alexandra, and Juliana, by her great-grandchildren Skyla and Joseph, by her sister, Cynthia Goodyear of Indianapolis, and by numerous relatives in both the Merullo and Haydock families.

At her request, services will be private, but all are welcome at the burial at Woodlawn Cemetery, 302 Elm St. Everett, at 11:00 on Thursday, June 21st.


Services

Graveside Service

Thursday, June 21st at 11:00 a.m. in Woodlawn Cemetery, 302 Elm St, Everett
(Please meet at the Main Gate of the cemetery by 10:45 a.m.)

Those wishing to honor her memory can make a donation in her name to a charity set up by her granddaughter, Zanny Merullo, that provides materials for a school in Cambodia.( Click Here to make a donation )


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To all our families, friends, and residents of Revere, East Boston, and surrounding communities of the North Shore,

We would like to announce that after 37 years of caring for thousands of families at our 773 Broadway location, on January 31st, 2023 we will be officially RELOCATING, to our new location at 262 Beach St., Revere.
On September 30th, 2022, we proudly purchased the Vazza “Beechwood” Funeral Home – DiPietro and Vazza, Inc. A name that has served families for 102 years. We feel blessed that with all of the interest, the Vazza Family chose us to carry on their century old business and family name. We will become Vertuccio Smith & Vazza, Beechwood Home for Funerals. We will continue to honor the Vazza name and continue our commitment the same way that we always have. We also look forward to having both Louis Vazza and Jessica Vazza Ferragamo alongside of us, as we come together as one.
Our reputation has always been our biggest asset. For many years people always wanted us to have a larger facility, now our facility is the largest funeral home in the area. We will be making many beautiful upgrades to allow our families to have the most elegant facility to honor their loved one.
Although this announcement is bittersweet, as we say goodbye to our home, we are forever grateful for all of you for placing your constant faith and trust in us to care for your loved one. We will continue to do what we are best known for.
Thank you for your friendship and continued support.
God bless you all.
Faithfully,

Your friends at Vertuccio Smith and Vazza.

To all our families, friends, and residents of Revere, East Boston, and surrounding communities of the North Shore,

We would like to announce that after 37 years of caring for thousands of families at our 773 Broadway location, on January 31st, 2023 we will be officially RELOCATING, to our new location at 262 Beach St., Revere.

On September 30th, 2022, we proudly purchased the Vazza “Beechwood” Funeral Home – DiPietro and Vazza, Inc. A name that has served families for 102 years. We feel blessed that with all of the interest, the Vazza Family chose us to carry on their century old business and family name. We will become Vertuccio Smith & Vazza, Beechwood Home for Funerals. We will continue to honor the Vazza name and continue our commitment the same way that we always have. We also look forward to having both Louis Vazza and Jessica Vazza Ferragamo alongside of us, as we come together as one.

Our reputation has always been our biggest asset. For many years people always wanted us to have a larger facility, now our facility is the largest funeral home in the area. We will be making many beautiful upgrades to allow our families to have the most elegant facility to honor their loved one.

Although this announcement is bittersweet, as we say goodbye to our home, we are forever grateful for all of you for placing your constant faith and trust in us to care for your loved one. We will continue to do what we are best known for.

Thank you for your friendship and continued support.

God bless you all.

Faithfully,

Your friends at Vertuccio Smith and Vazza.