Mary Faherty, at 91; assistant to Red Auerbach for 3 decades
In 1967, Mary Faherty answered a classified ad for a part-time receptionist and became Boston Celtics legend Red Auerbach's executive assistant for 31 years.
Mrs. Faherty, of East Falmouth, who worked for Auerbach as he built the team into an NBA dynasty, died Wednesday at Falmouth Hospital at age 91, after a long illness.
"She was a little taken aback at first by his street language and his gruffness but they really came to like each other," said her son Kevin Fitzgerald of Nashville. "She knew there was this teddy bear underneath."
Mrs. Faherty entertained her family over the years with tales of the Celtics' front office. As organizer of the team's Christmas party, she purchased and wrapped more than 70 holiday gifts for children of the players and staff.
She sometimes tapped her grandson Sean Crehan and his friends to clean Auerbach's cluttered office in exchange for her courtside seats.
"She definitely hooked us up. She had her own seats on the same aisle as Red's and across the opening," said Crehan of Millville.
Among her duties, Mrs. Faherty was in charge of the players' insurance forms, and recalled one rookie who answered a question about whom to contact in case of emergency by printing the words "a doctor."
As Auerbach's right hand, she answered his fan mail from around the world, dutifully imparting his words to children that academics should come first over sports, she once said.
"I thought I'd never get used to the smell of cigars, but it seems I'm immune to them now," she said in an interview in the team's magazine, "Celtic Pride," in the 1970s.
She was a tough office manager, according to her family, but could play the comedian, doing imitations of Groucho Marx with Auerbach's cigars.
"To get to Red, you had to get through my mother. It was almost like the Secret Service," Fitzgerald said.
She tried to retire several times but Auerbach refused to let her leave, and kept her on the payroll part time well into her 70s, according to her family.
He accepted her resignation in 1997, when she retired to Cape Cod, where she enjoyed painting watercolors and baking Irish bread with cranberries for her family. Auerbach died in 2006.
Mrs. Faherty was married for 66 years to Martin F. Faherty. The couple told different stories about how they met, according to family members. She said they met in church, while her husband said he spotted a beautiful girl in the neighborhood and asked a friend to introduce them.
Her husband, who is now 92, visited her daily at the Cape Cod nursing home where she lived for the past several years. They watched news of the Celtics' 17th NBA Championship together.
Born in Fall River, Mrs. Faherty was the daughter of Daniel and Catherine (Butler) Minnehan. Her mother died when she was a baby, and she was raised by her father and her aunt Anne Sullivan. Her father worked as a sign painter for Boston and Maine Railroad Co.
Before working for the Celtics, she had jobs at Jet Spray, United Drug, Russell Stover, and Levy Brothers Law Firm. She also worked at the family grocery business, the Walk Hill Market in Jamaica Plain.
Her favorite song was the Mills Brothers' 1968 hit "Cab Driver" with the lyric "Cab driver, drive by Mary's place."
"She was just the most giving person, her and my grandfather, both of them," Crehan said.
In addition to her son and grandson, Mrs. Faherty leaves her daughter, Patricia Crehan of Franklin; son Richard Faherty of Westford; two other grandsons; three granddaughters; and four great-grandchildren.
A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. today at St. Anthony's Church in East Falmouth. Burial will follow at the Massachusetts National Cemetery. 