One of the Boston Irish community’s brightest lights was extinguished a week before Christmas with the death of Kathleen Lawlor, who leaves her husband John, five children – Mary, Maeve, Paul, John, and Owen – four grandchildren, and two brothers, Paul and Brian Kingston.
In her youth Kathleen was beautiful, brilliant in scholastics, a gifted step dancer, and enamored of all things Irish. She had degrees from Newton College and Boston College, represented Boston in Ireland’s international Rose of Tralee pageant, and later was a teacher.
A member and director of the Eire Society of Boston for decades, Kathleen served as its president from 1975 to 1977, a post held earlier by her father, Paul Kingston. She was an active officer and organized countless Society events as former Eire president John Daley remembers: “For years she did almost everything in the Society ... you could always count on Kathleen to do it with charm, dignity, and grace. She was a real Irish woman, a real class act.  She will be sorely missed.
Maureen Connelly, a former Eire Society president who was a friend and Milton neighbor of Kathleen and John, remembers the Lawlor parties where those in attendance might include Seamus Heaney, John Hume or a member or two of the Chieftains. John fit right in as a champion NCAA and Olympic hammer thrower and captain of the 1964 Irish Olympic team.
On a personal note, I was privileged to sit across the table from Kathleen for thirty years as a fellow director of the Eire Society. She made it grand fun. She had a smile as welcoming as a toddler’s embrace and a mind that respected the Society’s mission of “spreading awareness of the cultural achievements of the Irish people.”
 Kathleen was a longtime parishioner of St. Agatha’s Parish in Milton where she sang in the choir.
– BILL O’DONNELL