Claire Dillon; teacher started day-care site

CLAIRE M. DILLON

Claire M. (Linnehan) Dillon, a former day-care manager, teacher, and longtime South Shore resident, died of lung cancer Nov. 22 at South Shore Hospital in Weymouth. She was 59.

Mrs. Dillon was born in Cambridge and was one of eight children. In 1967, she graduated from Scituate High School. She attended Perry Normal School in Boston, which later merged with Curry College in Milton. She transferred in 1969 to the University of Maine in Farmington, where she earned her bachelor's degree in early-childhood education in 1971.

For nine years, Mrs. Dillon worked as a third-grade teacher at Scituate's Central and Jenkins elementary schools. After the birth of her second child in 1981, she founded and directed The Crayon Box, a day-care center in Marshfield, in order to be with her children when they were young.

During that time, she sang with the Sweet Adelines barbershop chorus and the St. Mary of the Nativity Church choir in Scituate. Her brother, James of West Roxbury, said their father was a songwriter, and Mrs. Dillon and her siblings enjoyed singing in choirs and in musicals.

After leaving The Crayon Box, Mrs. Dillon taught at Marshfield's Head Start and Chapter 1 programs, St. Luke's Day Care Center in Scituate and Kathy Corrigan's Gymnastic School day-care center in Rockland.

Her career path as a teacher was no surprise, said Mrs. Dillon's sister, Joan Linnehan of Scituate. She said her sister gravitated toward young children.

"She prided herself on her extensive repertoire of nursery rhymes and children's songs," Linnehan said. "Whenever there was a little kid around, she always had some new song to teach them."

In 1994, Mrs. Dillon was diagnosed with breast cancer and battled several cancers, family members said.

In the early 2000s, Mrs. Dillon worked as a licensed real estate agent at Exit Realty Center in Stoughton. At the time of her death, she lived in Scituate.

Mrs. Dillon enjoyed taking long walks to Scituate Lighthouse, her brother and sister said. She also enjoyed painting, cooking, and homemaking.

In addition to her two siblings, Mrs. Dillon leaves her husband, Dennis of Weymouth; a son, James of Weymouth; and a daughter, Maureen of Sacramento; two other brothers, David Linnehan and Paul Linnehan, both of New York; and two other sisters, Mary Linnehan Dissette of Newburyport and Kathleen Linnehan Rosenbaum of Hull.

A memorial Mass will be said at 9:30 a.m. today in St. Mary of the Nativity Church in Scituate.