Patricia A. Bourke, 86, of Auburn, died on Tuesday, September 10, 2013. She was predeceased by her husband, Robert M. Bourke, who died in 2012. Patricia was born in Worcester on February 12, 1927, the fourth of six children of George and Etta (O’Leary) Pollinger.
She grew up on Beaver Brook Parkway in Worcester during the Depression and through the war years. Her father, a firefighter, was never out of work, and as Patricia described it, “We didn’t know we were poor.” Her mother was a housewife who played piano at home, and she sang at services in local Catholic churches for a little extra money. Patricia’s memories of her childhood gave the impression of almost unrestricted freedom.
She attended St. Peter’s High School on Main Street, an experience she recalled as a particularly happy time. The nuns at St. Peter’s offered her a scholarship to continue her education, but it was 1944 and she opted to take a quick secretarial course instead in order to help out her family with a job. Patricia frequently described those years, the end of the war, as a time when she went out dancing nearly every night, at popular places like Johnny Heinz’s Ballroom.
In 1946 she married Robert M. Bourke of Worcester, where they lived for the first few years. It was a marriage that would last for more than 65 years. In 1951, they bought a house in a new development in Auburn, Mass., where they would spend the rest of their lives. The neighborhood was made up almost entirely of young married couples and their children, and the first decades there had a lively social atmosphere. The Bourkes raised three daughters and two boys, after which Patricia went back to work, this time for the transit department at Mechanics Bank. After she retired from the bank in 1990, Patricia volunteered as an ombudsman for several nursing homes in the area; and the couple spent their winters in a daughter’s condominium in Port Charlotte, Florida.
The Bourkes were eager travelers, with a special fondness for New England. For their 25th anniversary, they celebrated in Hawaii. In the following years they explored much of rest of the country, and took trips to Acapulco, Quebec, and England. As late as the 1990s they were still mobile in spite of several health problems that had begun to make travel difficult; one of their last trips found them in a hot-air balloon flying over a glacier in Alaska.
Patricia will be remembered for many aspects of a cheerful, entertaining personality: as someone who delighted in wordplay, rhymes, and jokes; who could remember entire songs and poems at the drop of a hat; who insisted on good grammar; who went to great lengths to prepare surprises for birthdays and special occasions; who had a love for reading novels, loved American history, loved autumns in New England (for the weather as much as for the foliage); loved dogs. She was also known for a remarkable resilience in all manner of personal trial, a person for whom faith and family were of greatest importance.
Patricia Bourke is survived by her children Patricia Hertzfeld of Putnam, Conn., Sharon Deffely and her husband James Deffely of Auburn, Mass., Linda Bourke of Gloucester, Mass., Robert Bourke and his wife Kara Leistyna of Heath, Mass., and Kevin Bourke of Astoria, Queens; grandchildren Mary King and her husband James, Elon Hertzfeld and his wife Melanie, Sean Deffely and his wife Kathryn, Brion Deffely, Daniel Bourke, Maura Bourke, Dylan Merrill, and Katherine Merrill; great-grandchildren Haley and Hanna King, Barry and Drew Hertzfeld, James and Erin Deffely; her niece Susan VanBusKirk, among many other nieces and nephews—and a granddog, Derby.
Relatives and friends are invited to visit with Patricia’s family on Sunday, September 15, 2013 from 4-7 PM in the Britton-Wallace Funeral Home, 91 Central St. Auburn. Her funeral will be on Monday, September 16, 2013 from the funeral homes with her funeral Mass celebrated at 10 AM in Saint Joseph’s Church, 189 Oxford St North, Auburn. Burial will follow in Hillside Cemetery, Auburn. Memorial donations can be made to Central MA Hospice, 191 Pakachoag St., Auburn, MA 01501.
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