June Bratton, 80, mother of ex-Hub commissioner
In a top bureau drawer, June Bratton measured her family's finances in a series of envelopes and set aside money for bills and creditors -- a dollar for the egg man, a little more for the dress shop.
Each week she also slipped $2 in an envelope that grew thick through the winter and spring until the family fled the summer heat in Dorchester to spend a week or two on Cape Cod or at Weirs Beach in New Hampshire.
"We didn't have much money, but she always managed to put something away so we could go away on vacation every year to a cottage," said her daughter, Patricia of Rockland.
Mrs. Bratton, whose deep love for her husband and two children was less easily measured than the money she divvied up, died Sunday in the Weymouth house where she and her husband had lived for more than 30 years. She was 80 and had been suffering from emphysema and congestive heart failure.
"In talking about my mother, you have to talk about my father, too," said their son, William J. Bratton, the Los Angeles chief of police. "They were literally inseparable."
June M. DeVilla was living in the Bunker Hill housing project in the early 1940s when she met a neighbor, William E. Bratton .
"She was just casually dating my father's older brother and she met my father -- and that was it," said their son, who formerly was police commissioner in Boston and New York City.
A couple for 65 years and married for 61, they were only apart when her husband was in the Navy during World War II.
"They have a love like you just cannot imagine," their daughter said. "It's like something you read in storybooks."
"Just to watch them look at each other, you couldn't help but see the love that was there for all those years," their son said.
The Brattons married in 1946 and moved to Dorchester, into a three-decker her parents bought near meeting House Hill.
While her husband worked two jobs to support the family, Mrs. Bratton kept things running smoothly at home, looking out the window for his approach each weekday afternoon.
"She was a stay-at-home mom and would always have meals ready for us," her daughter said.
In retirement, the Brattons liked to visit Las Vegas, where Mrs. Bratton had a favorite performer. "They would go out for 10 days and would always work the dates around to where she could see Engelbert Humperdinck," their daughter said.
One time her son ran into Humperdinck's former agent at an airport and arranged to have the singer send Mrs. Bratton an autographed note and a few CDs.
"My mother was thrilled beyond imagination," her son said. "She always had a crush and a half on him."
When Mrs. Bratton became ill, she stayed home with her husband in their Weymouth bungalow. Neither would have it any other way.
"My Dad took complete care of her," their daughter said. "That's all my Dad wanted was for her to be at home."
On Sunday, the morning after his 81st birthday, Mrs. Bratton's husband made coffee for her and they chatted -- just the way they had begun so many days together. A short time later, she died in her sleep.
"When you talk about what families should be, they were like that," their son said. "In life you don't get to pick your parents. Pat and I lucked out that we got the pick of the litter."
In addition to her husband, son, and daughter, Mrs. Bratton leaves three sisters, Ruth Boyle of Weymouth, Joanne Nolan of Neponset, and Lorraine Zukowski of Quincy; and two grandsons.
A funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. today in St. Mary of the Sacred Heart Church in Hanover. Burial will be in Holy Family Cemetery in Rockland. 