My Mother, E. Claire Healey: Professor, Scholar, Actress, Pianist, Painter, Sailor, Skier, Figure Skater, Fashion Plate
She Also Tooled Around Town in her Hot Red Convertible
My mother, Eleanor Claire (nee Voyer) Healey, earned a PhD in English Literature from Columbia University, became an American Lit Professor, and ultimately became the first woman to chair the English department at Montclair State College (now Montclair State University) — but when I was a kid, growing up in Upper Montclair, New Jersey, she was just my Mother, taking care of two rambunctious boys, driving us around in her convertible for adventures in Montclair’s numerous parks, and thus pretty indistinguishable from the other suburban moms in our neighborhood.
[This story is one chapter in a memoir I am writing — “Growing Up in the Healey Clan: Playing Sports in Parks and Clubs in Upper Montclair — which I will be publishing serially on Medium.]
She also, incidentally, had movie-star looks, which may explain why she performed in local theater productions throughout my childhood, including a collection of starring roles at The Montclair…
