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JULY 9, 2026 | FREE
Residents self-publish aunt’s memoir after 50 years IN THIS By Peter Tuohy
ptuohy@thereminder.com
AROUND THE AREA
Western Mass. is lacking programs to help trafficking victims Local organizations say there are not a lot of support options for trafficking victims in Western Mass.
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Mayor hopes drivers will go slower New stop signs are intended to slow down drivers.
ant to recognize this woman.” Anne said that Glatfelter “dropped out of nowhere,” and Bill added that he is very pleased to have had her on board to complete this project.
“The gift from Julia is, she was just finishing college and she knew what she would do if she
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Charlotte Dempsey combs through her memoir in the original leather scrapbook.
PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID SPRINGFIELD, MA PERMIT NO. 142
181 ROOT ROAD WESTFIELD, MA 01085 413 - 285 - 3272
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WEST SPRINGFIELD — Charlotte Dempsey’s unpublished memoir, “I Wish I Could Live Here, Always,” sat quietly in a leather-bound scrapbook for five decades, preserving stories of the early 20th century and the artwork by generations of children in Boston’s South End. Nearly 50 years later, one unexpected phone call to Charlotte’s nephew and West Springfield resident Bill Dempsey sparked the collaboration that finally brought Dempsey’s vision to print. Charlotte, an educator and the director of The Children’s Art Centre in Boston from 19301971, began crafting the memoir upon retirement as a collection of her own typewritten stories and 80 original artworks by the children she taught. The memoir never made it to publishing due to the expense of color printing in the 1970s and landed in the possession of Bill and his wife, Anne Dempsey, a few years after Charlotte’s death in 1979. “We knew from talking to Charlotte that she wanted to write a book, which she intended as a review of her life,” Bill said. “Charlotte speaks at length about some students who stood out. It doesn’t say ‘I’m Charlotte Dempsey, this is what I accomplished,’ it’s about the children. Charlotte really wanted the public to see what these children could do.” Bill and Anne were raising a family when the book came into their possession, and Bill said he became stumped about the direc-
tion of the memoir until receiving a phone call from former Children’s Art Centre teacher and artist Julia Glatfelter in 2019. Glatfelter discovered Charlotte’s work during her time at the Children’s Art Centre, 99 years after Charlotte had begun working there. Glatfelter published her own children’s book, “The Little Glass Treasure House,” celebrating Charlotte’s legacy and the art center’s history. “I had the gift of teaching at the Children’s Art Centre, and there were images of this woman on the walls teaching children from the 1920s and 1930s,” Glatfelter said. “I understood that Northeastern University had all the archives for this 100-year history of what had happened in this building … not many people knew the history, and because of my own curiosity, I learned a lot.” Glatfelter’s book connected her to Bill and Anne, which she said was a shock because Charlotte never married or had children, so she didn’t know how to approach finding any relatives. The trio met at the Dempseys’ home in West Springfield and began digitizing and bring Charlotte’s memoir to fruition. “It’s really magical,” Glatfelter said. “We were able to digitize the entire book and we pitched it to more than 25 publishers in the region over the last three years but we never found a match … we decided to go ahead and self publish so that the Dempsey family could have this completed heirloom. It’s done, the family has it and we’ve accomplished our goal … it was really an honor because I thought it was extremely import-
See DEMPSEY on page 4
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