Cynthia Dromgoole, at 55; activist, Brookline children's librarian

"I remember distinctly walking down a street in Brookline once," said her husband, Bill, "and she stopped and talked to so many people with kids that one kid turned around and said, 'Is that the mayor?' She couldn't go one block without running into someone she knew."

Though working as a children's librarian made her a familiar face on Brookline's sidewalks, Mrs. Dromgoole was just as well acquainted with Boston, where she lived in several neighborhoods at various times, and Spain, where she taught English years ago.

Mrs. Dromgoole, a former branch director for the Boston Public Library, died Friday at her home in East Boston. She was 55 and had been diagnosed four years ago with colon cancer that metastasized.

A social activist, her causes ranged from protesting against Spanish dictator Francisco Franco in the streets of Madrid as a college student to raising questions about the environmental triggers for cancer when she was a patient.

Professionally, her calling was using books to expand the vistas of readers.

"She loved being a children's librarian and loved introducing children to that world of books, knowing that just as she was introduced to that world of books at a young age, this was an important thing that would give them joy for life," said her sister Barbara of Rome.

The job of librarian seemed perfect for Mrs. Dromgoole, her family said, because it allowed her to use her warmth, effusiveness, and desire to make a difference.

"She was more than a librarian; she was a resource for many people who otherwise had no idea where to go and how to get things done without someone to help them," her husband said. "A librarian would be a small part of her role in many of the communities where she worked. She was a magnet for people who needed someone to listen to them and understand them. She was a listener."

Mrs. Dromgoole served as children's librarian in Brookline from 1990 to 2000 and was at different times director of the Mattapan, South Boston, and Washington Village branches of the Boston Public Library from 2000 until last year.

Cynthia Burlingame graduated from Scituate High School in 1972 and interrupted her college studies to live in Spain, where she taught English in Madrid and endured the clubs of riot police while taking part in rallies against the longtime fascist dictator.

She graduated in 1978 from Boston University with a bachelor's degree in Hispanic language and literature and, as she had earlier, taught special needs children at different schools and agencies in and around Boston.

After marrying William Dromgoole in May 1984 - they were 11 days shy of their 25th anniversary when she died - she graduated from Simmons College in 1986 with a master's degree in library science.

They lived in Boston and the suburbs, and she counted among her addresses the North End, the South End, South Boston, Jamaica Plain, and Charlestown, where the Dromgooles lived on a boat at a marina for more than a year.

Mrs. Dromgoole also raised two daughters, Hannah and Lillian, taking them to live in Spain for a year when they were children because "she wanted them to have a sense of the bigness of the world and knowing other things," her sister said.

"She blazed her own path, really," a trait that was evident even as Mrs. Dromgoole was growing up, said her brother, Jack Burlingame of Hingham.

"I remember some of my siblings were big fans of the Monkees," her brother said. "She hated the Monkees and loved Frank Zappa. He's still ahead of his time, but back in the '60s, Frank Zappa was way off the charts, and he was her favorite musician. I don't know where she even found him. That was indicative of her taste, which was not mainstream."

Said her sister: "She was idealistic and yet profoundly realistic. She was very conventional in many ways and yet was also a rebel."

Mrs. Dromgoole's activism for social justice, from the streets of Madrid to her home in New England, was a defining trait, her siblings said.

"We were just talking about what Gandhi said, that you have to behave in the way that you want the world to change, and that's what Cindy did," her sister said.

Mrs. Dromgoole was diagnosed with cancer four years ago as her father, Eugene Burlingame, and stepsister, Jenny Birch, were fighting their own cancer battles. He died in 2005; she in 2006.

Informed of her diagnosis, "she wasn't teary or scared or anything," her sister said. "Her reaction was simply, calmly: 'Why shouldn't I have cancer? Of course I have cancer. Everyone I know has cancer.' "

The response, her sister said, was neither acceptance nor resignation.

Rather, "it was an acknowledgement that this is a scourge, and no family escapes it these days. She inspired others, like me, to look at the poisoning of the planet and question why there is this epidemic of cancer."

Whether advocating for change or simply helping a child take fledgling steps into the realm of reading, few were better suited to exchanges of ideas between people who moments earlier might have been strangers, Mrs. Dromgoole's family said.

"She was so bright and witty and had this unique sense of humor," he sister said. "People just loved her."

"She always took the time to say hello to people, to talk with them about things that were clearly important to them, and you got the sense that it became important to her, too," her husband said.

"She was notorious for the one-hour hello and the 45-minute goodbye."

In addition to her husband, two daughters, sister, and brother, Mrs. Dromgoole leaves her mother, Jane Burlingame of Quincy; her stepmother, Jeanne Fiol Burlingame of Boston; a brother, Michael Burlingame of New York City; two other sisters, Linda Burlingame of Scituate and Susan Burlingame of London; a stepson, Justin Teague of Canton; and three grand- children.

A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. today in Forsyth Chapel at Forest Hills Cemetery, Boston.

Burial will be private.