have been clueless about MA and its politics, but really liked reading about one of SOS Kerry's dearly departed Senate staffers (he mentioned her and others in his farewell Senate address), Ms. Jeanette Boone-Smith.
Long before boutiques and high-end restaurants dominated the landscape in the South End, Jeanette Boone-Smith helped push drug dealers and pimps out of the neighborhood.
In the 1980s, she fought for construction of mixed-income apartments, which gave longtime residents a chance to stay in their neighborhood amid rising real estate values, and she spent more than 15 years working on policy issues and constituent services for US Senator John Kerry.
“Jeanette was truly a visionary and a social revolutionary, someone who brought compassion, energy, and advocacy to a new level,” Kerry said.
In 1982, Kerry hired her as his executive assistant when he was elected lieutenant governor. He took her with him when he was elected to the US Senate.
Mrs. Boone-Smith’s “warm, generous, open personality and remarkable compassion for people in need” helped his office aid tens of thousands who over the years called seeking assistance, Kerry said.
Mrs. Boone-Smith retired in 2000 and then volunteered to help at-risk youths in the city. She joined clergy from urban churches and Boston police officers as they knocked on doors of troubled youths every week and counseled them to change their lives.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2012/10/31/jeanette-boone-smith-longtime-community-and-political-activist/gXMqJEjJgwN9vi1b9c2doK/story.html
Another article about Mr. Bradley (the other staffer mentioned)
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2013/01/longtime_democratic_operative.html
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