Gifted Conversationalist, Empathetic Listener
Alice Irene McMahon Farren passed away on July 15, 2018, beloved by all who knew her. She was a brilliant spirit who didn’t just shine, but sparkled.
Born in Everett in 1927 to Charles and Alice McMahon, Alice graduated Everett High
School early at the age of sixteen to assist the WWII war effort as a cost accountant at General Electric.
The mischievous glint in her twinkling blue eyes belied the little girl who would first meet Michael Farren—the man she would one day fall in love with—at the Five and Dime where he was a young clerk chasing her out of the store as she tore through the smooth aisles on roller skates, and then again when she stuck a pin in his doorbell while out pulling Halloween pranks with her cousins. The pair would reconnect years later in a shared carpool to the GE, where Michael was an airplane engine draftsman. Alice and Michael were married in 1950, enjoying a long romance over 43 years of marriage and raising four children— Sheila, Charlie, Teresa and Robin—in Malden’s Maplewood neighborhood.
Hardworking, loyal, kind and loving, Alice was a voracious reader and media consumer with whom you could have discussions on nearly any subject. A great conversationalist and an empathetic listener, she would make new friends wherever she went, from the grocery store line to a dinner party. She was also a free spirit who appeared in her son’s MTV music video in the 1980’s, enjoyed traveling throughout the US, and never missed the chance for a hot fudge sundae or a dance in the kitchen.
Her memory and laughter will live on through her four children (Sheila Farren Billings and her husband Tom of Salem, MA; Charlie Farren and his wife Marianne of Chelmsford, MA; Teresa Farren Starble and Gilbert Starble of Winthrop, MA; and Robin Haag Farren and her husband Michael of Malden, MA), her ten grandchildren
(Donovan, Zachary, Shauna, Ivory, Veronica, Oliver, Zhongmei, WenQi, Jasper and Dexter), her eight great grandchildren, and the many nieces, nephews, cousins, family and friends too numerous to list but never forgotten.
A private memorial service was held at Puritan Lawn Memorial Park in Peabody, MA. In lieu of flowers, please buy an ice cream cone for someone you love.