The galaxy lost a stellar jewel last night with the passing of WCVB-TV’s bright and talented Mary Richardson. Sadly, her star had gradually lost its sparkle over the seven years in which her dark disease – Alzheimer’s – increasingly sucked her into the void and stole her essence. Her loss – to her devoted husband and family, to her friends, to me – is incalculable.
Over a nearly 40-year friendship, we shared so many laughs, tears, and dreams. We were certain our friendship would last into our dotage. We fantasized sitting in rocking chairs on the front porch of some retirement home, sipping margaritas (she would have figured out how to smuggle them in) and wise-cracking about the young studs walking by. The laughs would never stop. Except that they did.
We worked together for years on Five on Five, Channel Five’s Sunday morning political discussion show. We reviewed it after each taping, laughing, formulating plans. In the eighties, we also worked on candidate debates (a U.S. Senate debate between Governor Bill Weld and Senator John Kerry in the Parker House ballroom sticks in my mind). How we relished the strategizing, the probing, the candidate responses and audience reactions.
But mostly we savored the friendship, the family gatherings, the home visits and dinners out, the movies (anything by the Coen brothers was a must-see immediately upon release, thanks to Mary’s son Chris, who introduced us to them through one of their earliest films, Blood Simple.)
Mary, with her sunshine voice, taught me what it means to be gracious, even when encountered by a viewer in assault mode. I absorbed in my every pore her enthusiasm for life, which audiences saw in her underwater dance with a porpoise or delight at discovering a new restaurant. She especially savored doing Chronicle programs about unsolved mysteries, as she gleefully shared little-known facts, the gorier the better. Audiences were spared the lesson she learned about going up in an old-fashioned biplane after eating creamed broccoli soup, which she indecorously lost – to the pilot’s chagrin. Her empathy for other people’s travails was endless and authentic. Her generosity was boundless; her humor, enlivening.
In her last years, at Avita, the memory care home in Needham, MA, when she couldn’t communicate and was buried deep inside herself, there were still precious moments when the Mary we all knew and loved shone through – in a reach for a hug, a spontaneous giggle, a twinkle in her eye. Thank you, dear Mary, for your life-enhancing friendship and loyalty. Thank you – for being you. The New Year will not be the same without you.
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Marjorie Arons-Barron 
Thank You:)
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A beautiful and loving tribute Marjorie.
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Thank you for a beautifully written blog on a remarkable woman. She changed the lives of so many.
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Mary’s beautiful voice and warn smile will live on. Margie, thanks for the lovely tribute.
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She was a class act. I listened to and followed her for decades. Thank you for sharing this intimate and loving tribute. May her memory be a blessing.
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So very sad. Mary was a true shining star — always so positive. Thank you for this beautiful tribute, Marjorie. When I started medical school in my 30’s, Mary said “Oh, you have to meet my baby sitter who started at Tufts last year.” She turned out to be the smartest and nicest person in the entire school — and a life long friend. Thank you, Mary for all you did for all of us with your warmth, love and generous spirit.
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My sincere sympathy to you for your own loss. May the memory of Mary Richardson, whom I knew only from the screen, be a blessing.
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Sad news, we lost an real good one .
May she Rest In Piece. 🙏
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What a wonderful tribute! I am sorry for your loss yet I’m so incredibly awed by your multi decade friendship. May her family and friends treasure their memories and may her many fans remember her charm, grace, humor and professionalism.
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She was such a star in so many ways–how lucky you were to have her in your intimate life–and how lucky we were to have us in our watching lives for so long.
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What a beautiful tribute to this truly beautiful star. The glow of her bright light was felt by so many. You are most fortunate to have basked in the warmth of her light so personally for so long. Mary Richardson was a treasure.
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I’m sorry for your loss.
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Your love and true friendship just bubbles from this tribute. And it is that very special friendship that you are able to have with anyone you truly care about. Not the fame but the person behind the fame. Mary was wonderful on WCVB but you treasured her as a friend as well as a really fun and talented colleague.
Alzheimers is a cruel disease, robbing the essence of a person before taking the body. Yet, we can fortunately remember so much of the fun and creativity and that is so important.
Judy ( Holmberg)
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Dear Marjorie,
I’m so sorry for the loss of your dear friend, Mary Richards. May she be a blessing to you. She was a favorite of mine on WCVB. I loved watching her adventures on Chronicle.
Sincerest Sympathy,
Carol Donovan
Regis ‘59
Former Woburn State Rep
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Oh no! So sad to read this. A lovely tribute, Marjorie, thank you.
Paul F. Levy
>
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