Obituary of James Maguire

James “Jimmy” Maguire, a retired Diesel Mechanic, passed away peacefully at his home following an extended illness. Jimmy was 58 years old. Jimmy was born and raised in Burlington. He was a graduate of Shawsheen Tech in Billerica where he majored in diesel mechanics. Jimmy worked as a diesel mechanic at Power Products in Wakefield for over 20 years prior to his retirement. He loved working on cars and trucks and could fix anything. He had a 1981 El Camino that he restored and installed a racing engine in. This car was Jimmy’s pride and joy. Jimmy would do anything for anyone, and he came to their rescue many times. He had a kind and generous spirit. His family always came first. He enjoyed good natured ribbing with his dad and his legion friends. He also enjoyed fishing and hunting with his special uncle Mickey Dickie. Jimmy also had a great love for animals and had two springer spaniel dogs that he adored – Numb and Rufus. He was a longtime member of the American Legion in Burlington where he made many friendships. Jimmy enjoyed special relationships with his Winter Street family and friends, especially the Wells and Dickie families. Jimmy was the loving son of Dorothy “Stina” (Norden) of Burlington and the late John C. Maguire. Brother of John Jr. & his late wife Mary of Burlington, Steven & his wife Irena of Billerica, Leo of Billerica, Ellen Power & her husband James of Billerica and the late Neil. Proud uncle of John III, Ryan, Shannon, Nicole Maguire, Michelle Hamilton, James & Gwendolyn Power. Great uncle of Harlee, John IV, Lucy Jeanne, & Justin Maguire and Sophia Hamilton. Graveside services will be held at Chestnut Hill Cemetery, Bedford St., Burlington on Monday, March 2 at 12:30 p.m. Relatives & friends respectfully invited to attend. In lieu of flowers, memorials in Jimmy’s name made be made to the MSPCA – Angell, 350 South Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02130 www.mspca.org Family Remembrance by Leo Good afternoon everybody. On behalf of the Maguire family I want to thank you for coming out to the services for Jimmy. It is great to see everyone. Also want to thank Marion for the beautiful service she put together and the Janet and Kevin Sullivan for making a tough time a lot less stressful. A special thanks to my brother Johnny who had the unfortunate fate of discovering Jim at peace but having the presence of mind to have my sister Ellen come pick up without her having to witness the events that have to take place in that situation. We are all grateful for that. Jim was a lifelong resident of Burlington, living at 14 Winter Street his entire life. Since he grew up on Winter Street, he of course had to have a nickname and he had a few, most notably Bagster Dragster, Razor Tooth, Saw Tooth and of course Hickleberry, later changed to The Hick. For those of you old enough to remember, Burlington was a lot different when we were growing up. Not a lot of high priced restaurant and every house didn’t sell for a million dollars. Jim was lucky enough to grow up with lots of open space and barns and corrals filled with pigs, horses, goats, chickens, ducks, rabbits you name it. Jim was also lucky enough to have two fathers growing up, our Dad John, and his second father Mickey Dickie who took Jimmy under his wing because of Jim’s lover of animals. We always used to say Jimmy should have been born a Dickie. He loved taking care of the animals, going to the auction, and riding horses. He was always a free spirit who had very little concern for conforming or caring what other people thought of him. To that point Bobby Ganley likes to tell the story of Jim buying his beloved dog Numbnuts. It was his birthday and he was celebrating. On a whim he drives to the Liberty Tree Mall and buys the dog at a pet store. The dog is a pure breed AKC papered English Springer Spaniel. The lady doing the paperwork asks him what are to going to name the dog. He says, “Numbnuts”. She says, you can’t name the dog Numbnuts. He says, I just paid $1,500 for the dog I can name him whatever the “you know what” I want. Classic Hickleberry. Jim was always there to help in any way he could. A gifted mechanic he could fix anything with wheels. Came to the rescue many a night, being it winching out Timmy Wells car with his truck when it was stuck and about a foot away from falling into the reservoir or saving me and Jeanne back in the day when I’d run out of gas in my old Chevy Nova with the gas guage that didn’t work. No matter what time of day or night he would saddle up and come get you going. A true friend. He loved his family and friends, especially his only sister Ellen and all of his nieces and nephews. He had four brothers John, Steven, me and Neil. We are a close family and we got a lot closer in the late 60s when Jimmy and I lit our house on fire forcing four of us boys to have to sleep in one small room off the kitchen for a while. Good times! He loved spending time at the Legion with his many friends including his partners in crime Bernie Haney, Steve Buonapane and Archie Feeney. He especially liked to bust peoples chops. One of his favorite targets was my father. They would go back and forth calling each other alligator arms or short arms long pockets Always in good fun. Jimmy would always say he was nothing like my father, but Randy Doyle would remind him that , “The apple does not fall far from the tree” which was definitely true. He liked to exude a gruff and tough persona to the world but was really very soft hearted. He would hate to hear me say it but deep down he was a momma’s boy. Not a sissy Momma’s boy, but he loved our mother very deeply and would have been lost without her. They lived together 58 years and though he could get grumpy with her when he was not feeling well, he loved her more than anything in this world. Although I could tell you a million great stories about my brother Jimmy he would have wanted a short ceremony so I will leave you with one story that explains Jimmy in a nutshell as it contains five of his favorite things. 1. Having a few beers at the Legion. 2, Chinese food. 3. His Truck. 4.Playing cards with Dottie Wells. 5. The Dukes of Hazard. We were at the club on a winter Saturday in the days before cell phones so we must have gotten a call on the house phone informing us that Dottie wanted to play cards. Jimmy never passed up a chance to cut the cards with Dottie so we jumped into action, first heading to the Royal Hawaiian to buy Jimmy’s normal three tons of Chinese food. On the way to Winter Street via Peach Orchard Road we passed the construction site of what become the Arboretum Apartment complex. Jimmy had a brand-new Chevy Silverado pickup truck so of course pulled off the paved road to see if we could make a short cut through the site. Didn’t work out so well so we turned around and somehow became confronted with a mound of dirt that had been pushed around so that it resembled a ramp. In front of the mound was a huge dug out ditch. This being the eighties, when the Dukes of Hazzard ruled the airways, Jimmy says do you think we can be like Bo and Luke and jump that ditch like they would do with the General Lee? Being that I had been with him all day I readily agreed with this brilliant idea. He backs up the truck, puts it in gear and floors it. We hit the jump, clear the ditch crashing down on the other side. The tree ton bag of Chinese food hits the windshield and explodes all over the truck and us. We proceed to the Wells house but are laughing so hard that when we get there we can’t talk. Cards had to be delayed for a while as we cried laughing trying to tell the story. That’s the Jimmy I will always remember. Just a good old boy, never meaning no harm. One of his favorite sayings was, ”We are here for a good time, not a long time”. Words to live by. So goodbye to our friend and brother Jimmy. We love him forever and will never forget him.