June Kennedy’s book tells stories of old Westford
By Ariel Z. Burch/ Staff Writer for the Westford Eagle
Thursday, June 22, 2006

June Kennedy has collected 49 interviews, 188 vintage photographs and hundreds of memories of historic Westford in her new book, "Westford Recollections of Days Gone By." She will hold a book signing at the Westford Museum Saturday, June 24, from 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Kennedy tape-recorded informal interviews in the mid-1970s and has now gathered them all together in her book. She devoted a chapter to her friend and mentor Allister Francis MacDougall who inspired her interest in Westford history.

"He spent his lifetime searching, researching, collecting and sharing Westford’s history, and served as a vital link connecting the chain of events which have shaped our New England Town," Kennedy writes in "Westford Recollections of Days Gone By."

"He was really the resident historian of Westford," Kennedy said Tuesday.

"He told me stories and relayed stories and once we even had a tour of the town," Kennedy said.

Kennedy said MacDougall’s lectures at the Historical Society prompted her to research Westford history. His black-and-white photographs sparked a greater interest and led her to write "Westford Recollections 250th Anniversary Series," published in the "Westford Eagle" in 1979, and her first book, "Westford Recollections 1729-1979," she said.

Kennedy chose to illustrate the cover of her most recent book with a photograph of MacDougall, not only because he was her mentor, but because the image represents the Westford culture that she captures on the book’s pages.

"The photo represents an agrarian lifestyle that we don’t see now," Kennedy said. "It is really turn-of-the-century horse and buggy days," she said.

The oldest interview is of the great-grandfather of J.V. Fletcher, born in 1883, and the most recent was of a Westford resident born in 1929.

The book is available for sale locally at Holly Hill Framing, Lookin’ Good, the Westford Museum, Roudenbush Community Center, Cameron Senior Center and on amazon.com.