Mary Coolidge

Mary Coolidge left this world much as she lived in it: in a home with an open door, surrounded by a steady stream of family and friends who loved her.

If the number of close friendships a person has enjoyed is evidence of a life well lived, Mary lived extraordinarily well. Friendships were woven into the fabric of her life over decades and oceans. The remarkable number of people who counted Mary among their closest friends was a testament to the love and friendship she gave so generously.

Although the Coolidge family called Concord, Massachusetts, home, Mary and her three younger siblings -- Nina, Ellen and Frank – traveled the globe from Washington to Switzerland to North Africa and back to Washington. They were following their father, Francis Lowell Coolidge, as he parlayed his perilous clandestine operations for the OSS during World War II into clandestine work for the CIA. As a child, Mary never knew what her father really did, but she wondered why the family seemed to move close to centers of intrigue or insurrection.

Mary’s mother, Helen Curtis Coolidge, affectionately nicknamed her “Cuppy” because someone claimed that her newborn daughter was as sweet and adorable as a cupcake - a family name that stayed with her throughout her life.

Helen also instilled in Mary the essential values of championing the Boston Red Sox and rooting against the New York Yankees. Raised listening to the Sox on the radio, Mary remained a devoted fan for the rest of her life even through decades of suffering, watching most of the 162 regular-season games each year on television.

Eventually, Mary settled in Essex, Connecticut, thereby emulating her father by adding a touch of the picaresque to a picturesque town. She experienced two short marriages—one tragically cut short by the death of her beloved husband, Thomas Hilliar. Their son, Trevor Lowell Hilliar, was born in 1970. Her second marriage—to the wonderfully incompatible Salvatore Pace—produced Salvatore Pace II (“Tory”) in 1976 and no shortage of stories, and seven beloved stepchildren and many grandchildren.

Mary was adventurous. She was, for instance, a serial entrepreneur long before the phrase existed. She opened many brick and mortar businesses, both as an independent businesswoman and sometimes alongside business partners. Among the businesses she founded were Toys Ahoy and Hilliar’s Foreign Motors, both decades-long institutions in the Lower Connecticut River Valley. During the 1990s, she and her friend Ann Soper embarked on the perfectly logical business combination of toys and women's clothing first in Chester and then in St. John. Mary also quietly assembled what was unquestionably the finest collection of Western-themed salt and pepper shakers in the Lower Connecticut River Valley—a distinction that, regrettably, went unremarked.

During the last two decades of her life, Mary had one overriding mission: being a loving grandmother. Bailey, Marley, Wyatt, Carlo, and Alana were the center of her universe, and few people have taken more joy in spoiling their grandchildren.

Mary was preceded in death by her sisters, Georgina “Nina” Bogetto and Ellen Coolidge Burbank, and brother: Francis Lowell Coolidge.

A celebration of life will be held on Sunday, November 22, 2026, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM at the Essex Yacht Club. RSVPs are not required, but please let us know at [email protected] if you plan to attend.

In lieu of flowers, root for the Red Sox. Even if it hurts.