Edward J. Sullivan

Reading – Mr. Edward J. Sullivan, of Reading, died Friday, August 21, 2009 at Meadow View Care and Rehabilitation Center in North Reading. He was 91. Ed was born in Boston on January 1, 1918 and was a son of the late Charles and Alice (Quilty) Sullivan. He grew up in South Boston and was a graduate of Boston English High School. During World War II he served as a staff sergeant with the U.S. Army Air Corps 8th Air Force, based in England. He was a flight engineer and arial gunner whose bomber crew flew constant missions over Europe from May of 1944, a month before the Normandy invasion, until the war’s end almost a year later. After the war he settled in Wakefield and became a food brokerage sales representative and had worked for Pezrow Food Brokers in Foxborough until his retirement. He was a resident of West Yarmouth for seventeen years before moving to Reading five years ago. Ed was a member of American Legion Post No. 63 and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Lodge No. 1276, both in Wakefield. He leaves his wife, Irene (Emerson) O’Neil Sullivan; his children, Maureen Higgins and her husband, Anthony, Donna Beasley and her husband, Glen, all of Yarmouthport, Susan McAuliffe and her husband, Joseph, of North Reading, Edward Sullivan, Jr. and his wife, Ellen, of Saugus and John ‘Jack’ Sullivan and his wife, Tracey, of Wakefield; his son-in-law, Edward Russo of Wakefield; his step-children, James O’Neil, Jr. and his wife, Ann Marie, of Naples, Florida, Ellen O’Neil, David O’Neil and his wife, Maura, all of North Reading and Jeanette Delphia of Pennsylvania; 28 grandchildren, 35 great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. Ed was also the husband of the late Claire T. (Fitzgerald) Sullivan, father of the late Kathleen Russo and the brother of the late Mary Powers. Family and friends will honor and remember Ed’s life by gathering for calling hours at The Joyce Funeral Home, 245 Main Street (Rte. 20), Waltham on Monday from 4 to 8 p.m. and again on Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. before leaving in procession to Saint Theresa’s Church, 63 Winter Street, North Reading where his Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Burial will follow in Forest Glade Cemetery, Wakefield. Memorial donations may be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105.