Beatrice Carolyn McMullen (Boyle) entered into the Lord’s loving embrace on Tuesday, April 29, 2025 at home surrounded by her family. Born in Boston on September 16, 1931, she was the wife, for 47-plus years, of Joseph Michael McMullen, Jr., who passed away in 1999. Daughter of Mabel Frances McGowan (Elliott/Boyle) and Herbert Benjamin Boyle, Beatrice enjoyed a long life filled with kindness, laughter, and love.
She spent several years living in Economy, Nova Scotia, where she grew up with dozens of cousins and attended grades four, five, and six at a two-room schoolhouse, walking almost three miles in each direction. She lived with her aunt in a home that had no running water, a countryside home across from the bend of a river. Bea cheerfully fetched water from a nearby brook for drinking, cooking, and washing.
She returned to Boston, where she graduated from North Quincy High School in 1950. She met her future husband while roller skating at the Neponset Roller Skating Rink. Bea and Joe were married at Sacred Heart Church in Quincy on June 7, 1952.
In July 1954 Bea, Joe, and their infant daughter moved to Hopkinton. Bea lived on Lake Maspenock for 71 years. For many years she was the secretary of the Lake Maspenock Preservation Association.
After raising her daughters, Bea worked as an administrative assistant at Keefe Regional Technical School as well as at banks. She volunteered for the Experiment in International Living for a number of years, placing countless exchange students with families in the region. She and Joe hosted more than a dozen students themselves and had the opportunity later to visit some of them. Bea and Joe successfully worked with a state representative on a bill related to public works, taking many trips to the State Capitol Building.
Bea loved to travel, making five trips to Europe, two trips to Asia, and countless trips to her beloved Nova Scotia, as well as trips throughout the United States and other parts of Canada. She participated in many activities in Hopkinton, rarely missing a town meeting during the seven decades that she lived there. Her interests were wide. At age 72 she completed a four-year scripture study course. She assisted with a number of community events, including the annual St. John’s Rummage Sale, and she was a Brownie leader.
Bea had a great interest in family history and worked on it for years with her husband and her daughter Dianne in archives from Boston to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to Ireland.
Bea had two daughters, Dianne Marie McMullen of Hopkinton and Marjorie Ann Pelczar (Richard Joseph) of Groveland. Her two grandsons are Matthew Pelczar (Alexandria) of York, Maine and Kyle Pelczar (Sara) of Billerica. Her four great-grandchildren are Wesley, Elouise, Jackson, and Vivian Bea.
She loved spending time with her family, especially at her lakeside home, with the children fishing from the dock and riding in the boats. Some of the family’s best times were birthday celebrations for her in her scenic backyard.
Bea loved the Lord, her family, and her friends. Her many friends and relatives, here and abroad, will dearly miss her witness of God’s love in her life, her positive attitude, and her demonstrations of faith, humility, perseverance, kindness, and gratitude.
Calling hours are on Sunday, May 4 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Callanan Cronin Funeral Home, 34 Church Street in Hopkinton. The funeral will be held Monday, May 5 at 9:30 a.m. from the funeral home. A funeral Mass will follow at 10:30 a.m. at St. John the Evangelist Church at 20 Church Street, Hopkinton. Burial will follow at Evergreen Cemetery, Woodville.
Donations in Bea’s memory may be made to St. John the Evangelist Church, to the Mustard Seed (through St. John the Evangelist Church), to St. Vincent de Paul Society, or to the Lake Maspenock Preservation Society.
