Where it all began...
Though taken about twenty years before VJ Day, this photo of the Boston Common shows, on the right, the Park Street subway kiosks where Charles Spataro sold newspapers. Near the ornate fountain on our left you can see a line of benches. It was on one of those benches where Spataro sat, waiting for his shift to begin on VJ Day, August 15, 1945, when a woman approached and asked him to watch her infant.
The newsboy, Charles Spataro
An impressive young man
From his 1947 Boston Latin yearbook this is the newsboy Charles Spataro., who held the baby after his abandonment, until the three women from Dorchester intervened. (Not for nothing, but Latin was a tough school, and this kid also worked, and....
...he was also an award winning School Boy Cadet. (Never heard of the School Boy Cadets? Read all about them in my History Magazine article posted here.)
This is the site of the Paris Street home of the Spataros. We love this wonderful mural which local artists painted on the remaining wall of the building in which theor home was located in August, 1945
His first stop... The Temporary Home
As we researched the details of Little Mister Victory's journey after his abandonment, we acquired the police report which recorded that he was taken from Joy Street Station to a place called "The Temporary Home" A state archivist pulled the handwritten record for August. His entry is at the bottom of this photo.
Zooming in, on the left, we see the names of officers Cannon and McGrath, whom the police report said had been flagged down by three women from Dorchester. (They had seen newsboy Charles Spataro with a fussing baby.) The Temporary Home record confirms it was they who delivered the baby.
Zooming in on the right side of the record we see Tosi and Tesorero, the officers who (for reasons explained in the book) were oredered to pick up the baby and take him to Boston City Hospital. The next day a picture of John Tesorero, holding Little Mister Victory, would be in a Boston newspaper. (It is trips down these archives -- and the finding of such details -- which make a researcher's day.)
Not quite yet...
The August 22, 1945 Boston Record front page featured Nurse Barbara Dayson taking Little Mister Victory's weight. However, the caption was wrong. The baby would not be transferred into state care for another five days. This was just one of many reports in the two weeks after his abandonment that were either partly - or wholly - incorrect which would send us down several dead ends.
Foster homes
In the first five years of his life Robert Harrington (as he was named by the state) lived in three foster homes. His departure from the first two were shrouded in mystery, until our research uncovered several harsh and troubling truths. Robert's last foster home was in Pembroke, where he lived with Harold and Cora Bouvier. This loving couple fostered many children from the 1930s to 1950s.
Robert's new parents
WW2 Navy veteran John Garvey and his wife, Dorothy (in the center of this picture) had been married for about ten years when they applied to adopt a child. In 1950, five year-old Robert Harrington would become Robert Garvey and begin his life in Boston.
The ad for the restaurant
Around the time they adopted Robert the couple would buy this restaurant in Melrose.
Garvey's Restaurant
Tina challenged us to find a picture of her family's restaurant in Melrose. Whoever found it first was promised a plate of cookies. That was all the incentive we needed! The only picture found was one featuring the building for Transitone, makers of state-of-the-art transistors in the 1950s, but which shows, across the street, the front entrance to Garveys.
Transistors and danish
According to Time magazine, by 1959 this maker of cutting-edge electronics was the third largest semiconductor company in the country. Many employees at Transitron's Melrose manufacturing site made Garveys, right across the street, a regular stop.
Bunker Hill Day
It is hard, today, to appreciate what a big deal Bunker Hill Day and the parade used to be in Charlestown. This picture of the 1946 parade was taken from the "El," which ran along Main Street.
From his DCF file, we know that on June 17, 1950 Dorothy Garvey took Robert to Charlestown for that year's Bunker Hill Day Parade.
The Purple Shamrock & Bobby
It is noteworthy that this picture of "The Rascal King" was placed at the top of the article on the parade in the June 18 Boston Globe. Though he had been voted out of office a year earlier, the loudest cheers from parade-goers still erupted when Curley passed. From the book, we have excerpted the story of the parade here.
Ida and Dot
A family secret... revealed
One of... no, make that THE greatest joy from doing the kind of books I write is travelling down what I call research rabbit holes and finding unexpected stories. Case in point...the story of Ida Rahall, which is told on page 51 of our book. We are pleased to present some documents and pictures related to her story which did not make the book.
Bourdeau 1910
This 1910 federal census shows Ida's mother, Augusta (Rahall) Bourdeau, her husband Edward and their four children. When Augusta died 1917 her husband (a real P.O.S.) abandoned their four children.
Rahall 1920
The four children were sent to live with different members of the Rahall family. Ida went to live with Myra and Joseph Rahall of Allston. Note on the last line in this 1920 census Ida is listed as a "boarder." Dorothy, listed above Ida, would marry John Garvey in 1940 and adopt Tina's dad in 1951.
Rahall 1930
Dorothy grew up believing Ida was her sister, which the family knew wasn't true -- Ida was Dot's cousin. What was recorded in the 1930 census was untrue, as well -- Ida was never formally adopted by the Rahall's.
Cousin...sister...adopted...boarder...it didn't matter. Dot and Ida were close their entire lives. Even after she grew up and learned the true story, Dorothy never stopped referring to Ida as a sister.
Baby Shower
This picture was taken during a baby shower for Ida's daughter Jean Briggs, who is the dark-haired woman in the middle of the picture. Ida (who had married a man named Alfred Gilbert) is to her right and Dot is to her left.
A great visit
The lovely ladies with me are Ida's granddaughters Cathy, Carol, and Sharon who visited Mauzy and I in June, 2026.
Video of the July 1967 attack on Da Nang Airbase
Robert Garvey served America as an Air Freight Specialist stationed at Da Nang Airbase in Vietnam, and would receive the Purple Heart for the wounds he received during this July 1967 attack, which was captured on film. Click to view the video.
My own family connection to Little Mister Victory
I continue to be amazed at the connections between Robert Garvey and so many historic people, places and events in Boston. What I discovered one day was a connection with my own family. When the state decided to have the abandoned baby baptized Catholic, someone chose St Mary's in the city's North End for the sacrament.
St. Mary's altar
St. Mary's on Endicott Street was for decades the center of life for many North End residents. It was on this beautiful altar where the newly named Robert Harrington was baptized on August 27, 1945.
Bud and Mary
Bud and Mary
This is my connection - it was the same altar where my in-laws, Martin Stafford and Mary Vapore exchanged their vows of marriage on August 23, 1952,