Leo Finnegan, the North End’s Modest Tenor
By Kathleen Downey
Leo Finnegan is a humble man whose modesty holds his tongue, lest he portray himself as too big a deal. So it was with a very much down-played air that he shared, toward the end of our interview, that he had rescued someone from a burning Kent Street home while serving as a firefighter for Newburyport’s Call Fire Department during the 1960s. “I helped to drag outside a person who had collapsed on the floor,” he told me. Though the memory of his heroic act rests upon Finnegan as simply a small service that he provided many years ago, to the unnamed townie whose life he saved, Finnegan’s selfless act was no doubt huge.
Finnegan recalls growing up on quiet Forrester Street while World War II was raging overseas. “I would take the bus with my aunt and mother to and from downtown. On the return trip, we would disembark at Woodland Street and pay a ten-cent fare, rather than continue on to Forrester for a fare of 15 cents.” This nickel savings was significant during this time of scrap metal drives (a commonplace fundraiser) when, as an eight-year-old, Finnegan says, “I remember watching an air raid warden walk up and down my street, patrolling the neighborhood.”
A particularly fond boyhood memory that Finnegan keeps are of the lazy summers he spent on Plum Island. “I’d play on the basin side at high tide and on the ocean side at low tide. I had a great time,” Finnegan reminisces for me. He also remembers the rustic camps that once populated Sandy Point.
While a student at Immaculate Conception (IC)-Finnegan attended both grammar and high school at the IC and received what he describes as a great education-he honed his writing skills, penning a student column that appeared in the Daily News. He also delivered the ‘News to neighbors on his paper route.
As a young man, Finnegan satisfied his love for singing as a tenor in a barbershop octet, performing for and lifting the spirits of area nursing home residents.
Following his career as general manager at the defunct Coca Cola plant on Merrimack Street, Finnegan purchased Leary’s Liquor Store. As director of Opportunity Works during that time, he hired clientele from Opportunity Works to run the redemption center annexed to Leary’s, fulfilling Finnegan’s belief in helping community citizens.
Finnegan owned and operated Leary’s for 18 years, from 1981 to 1999. “It was a fun business to run,” he says. Finnegan particularly enjoyed hosting monthly wine tastings and penning a recurring wine column in the Daily News. His wife Linda managed an Irish import store anchored to one side of the building.
I asked Finnegan how he met his wife. “Oh,” he says, leaning back in his chair, as if relaxing with the memory, “I first noticed Linda while she was standing in front of Taffy’s. A few weeks later I saw her at Hampton Beach when I was there with my buddies. I watched Linda go inside a restaurant with her friends.” Finnegan pauses just a brief moment and says, “I followed her in.” Finnegan and his wife celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last year. They have four children and eight grandchildren.
As a young couple, Friday nights meant music and dancing at the Sportsman’s Lodge (where Joppa Flats Audubon Center is now located). Finnegan confesses, “I wasn’t much of a dancer.” He remembers sitting with Linda at a long table, packed with other townies, listening to local musicians like Les Harris (drums, “an old Newburyporter,” Finnegan says) and Walt Jackson (saxophone). Finnegan laughs as he recalls how the local police officer on detail would ask the crowd to leave. “At closing time, Officer Pete Genna would take out a big broom and threaten to sweep us out the door if we didn’t move quickly enough.”
These days, Finnegan and his wife are snowbirds. They winter in Naples, Florida, where Finnegan says a sizable townie population from the Port also resides when the snow is falling here in Market Square.
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Kathleen Downey is a contributing writer to Newburyport-Today if you are a “Townie” and would like to be interviewed by Kathleen, please let us know!
