Martha C. White

Waltham – Miss Martha C. White, of Waltham, died Wednesday, May 12, 2010 at Lahey Clinic in Burlington. She was 85.

Martha was born in Quincy on July 4, 1924, a daughter of the late George V. and Laura E. (Earl) White, and had been a resident of Waltham for forty years. She was a graduate of North Quincy High School. Seven years after graduation she moved to Cambridge to be near her work at Harvard University where she worked for twenty-one years. She later became the private secretary to the Rt. Rev. Burgess who was Suffragan Bishop of the Episcopal diocese for eight years until her retirement. She then worked thirteen years as a secretary at a law firm in Boston.

Martha was an accomplished soloist. She sang in many choirs in the Boston area beginning with the Emmanuel Church in Boston and later at St. John the Evangelist Church, also in Boston. She then was a soprano soloist at the North Congregational Church in Cambridge and then became the soprano soloist at Grace Episcopal Church in Lawrence for seventeen years. Martha spent twenty-five years in the choir at the Old North Church in Boston. She was in the choir when there were special services with distinguished speakers including President Gerald Ford, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip of England.

Her other commitments to singing were with the Arundel Opera Company in Kennebunkport, Maine and several Gilbert and Sullivan operettas in Boston, Lawrence, and at Harvard University Summer Theatre. She also travelled extensively during her vacations to Hawaii, Europe, England, South America and her favorite place, Austria.

Martha’s other interests were African violets where she was a member of local, state, and national African Violets Societies. She also took quilting classes at the Waltham Senior Center each week and also did water walking exercises twice a week at the YMCA.

She leaves her brother, William W. White and his wife, Carol, of Holbrook; two nephews, Charles White of Bridgewater and David White of Holbrook, and her niece, Carolyn Lozeau of Whitman.

Martha was also the aunt of the late Judy White.

Family and friends will honor and remember Martha’s life by gathering for a Funeral Service at Christ Church, 750 Main Street, Waltham on Thursday at 11 a.m. Visitation will be held at the church prior to the service from 9 to 11 a.m. Burial will follow in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge.

Memorial donations may be made to the William F. Stanley Center, 488 Main Street Waltham, MA 02452.