Shirley Sweeney, 77; was hearth of Yankee Craftsman business

Customers arriving at Yankee Craftsman in Wayland had to choose between two doors at the point where the house ended and the shop began. Behind one door lay the antique lights the Sweeney family restored. The other led to Shirley Sweeney's kitchen.

"More often than not, they would go to the kitchen and see my mother first," said her daughter, Sally Foley. "She always took time to stop what she was doing, to sit down and visit. To her, the value of friendship meant more than any other task she had at hand."

Truth be told, though, most everyone who went to Yankee Craftsman paid a visit to Mrs. Sweeney before they left.

"You have to walk through her kitchen to get to the bathroom," said her son Scott. "We all visited with her every day."

Mrs. Sweeney, a Southerner by predilection whose Mississippi adolescence poured forth in the deep fried dough she served with powdered sugar and maple syrup each Sunday morning, died at home on Dec. 15. She was 77 and had been diagnosed with cancer a year ago.

"My dad started this business from scratch with us boys; he was a great man," said Scott, who lives in Wayland and runs Yankee Craftsman with his two brothers. "But one thing that didn't get credit all the time was my mom, because she was always there. She was the bedrock. She was the glue."

Shirley Ann Gray was born in Tipton, a small town in Indiana. Her father was in the National Guard and moved from base to base while she was growing up. Delighted at sharing a name with Shirley Temple, she cut out photos of the child actress and dressed the photo with cutouts of clothes because her family didn't have the money for her to buy a Shirley Temple doll.

Years later, for her 75th birthday, Mrs. Sweeney's daughter gave her a vintage doll like the one she wanted as a child.

As she entered her teen years, Mrs. Sweeney's family settled on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where she was named Best Dressed and Cutest Girl of her 1947 class at Ocean Springs High School. After high school she went to live in the French Quarter of New Orleans and worked for a dentist of Louisiana Creole heritage.

"It was there that she really became smitten with the whole Creole culture," said her daughter, who lives in Deer Isle, Maine. "She went to fancy parties, learned about the history of the area, and loved New Orleans. She said it was a wonderful place for a young woman embarking on a career to spread her wings. She loved her independence, loved being on her own. She was not in the market for a husband, so to speak."

Then her father retired from the military and was managing tourist cabins in Biloxi, Miss.

"There was a good-looking young sergeant from the Air Force, looking to rent some cabins for his parents, who were from outside Boston," her daughter said. "It was love at first sight, there was no two ways about it. They courted, they got married, and they were shipped overseas to the Philippines."

When her husband, William Sweeney, was discharged from the Air Force, they moved to Cochituate, a village in Wayland. He worked as a plant engineer at Dow Chemical before going into business for himself, a venture that became Yankee Craftsman. The business outgrew their first Wayland home and the family moved to what was known as the Damon Farm homestead 30 years ago. Mr. Sweeney died in 2003.

Although Mrs. Sweeney embraced her new home, "my mother always remained a devout Southerner," her daughter said.

Southern dishes like red beans and rice were the sort of thing "she loved to make and we loved to eat," her daughter said. "We thought everybody ate that way." Nothing, however, matched the weekly experience of waiting for Mrs. Sweeney's deep fried dough.

"She would mix the dough the night before in a big old crockery bowl, and the smell of the rising yeast through the house was unbelievable," her daughter said. "You knew it was Saturday night when you smelled that because Sunday morning was when we had the dough boys."

"She was a very memorable person," her son said. "She had a sincere gift for making people feel at home."

In addition to her daughter and son, Mrs. Sweeney leaves two other sons, Bruce of Upton and Gary of Marlborough; a brother, Edwin Gray of Fort Worth, Texas; three granddaughters; and a grandson.

A memorial gathering will be held today at 3 p.m. in the Sweeneys's home in Wayland.