Dorchester Illustration World War One Service Member biography: Ray Boutelle Greene
At the Dorchester Historical Society, we are in the process of a year-long project to commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I. Using a collection of photographs we have of WWI Dorchester residents, we will be featuring servicemen in a number of short biographies throughout the year. At the culmination of the project, we hope to produce an online exhibit that highlights these men and their service to our country.
Our next biography features: Ray Boutelle Greene.
Written by Camille Arbogast.
Ray Boutelle Greene was born on July 19, 1892, in Clinton, Massachusetts. His father, Henry Herbert Greene, had also been born in Clinton. His mother, Lillian Pierce (Boutelle), known as Lilla, was from Fitchburg, Massachusetts, where her parents ran a bakery on Circle Street. Henry and Lilla were married in Fitchburg in 1887, then settled in Clinton. In addition to Ray, they had a daughter, Helen, who was born in 1889.
The family moved to Dorchester in 1894, living at 1015 Dorchester Avenue. By 1903, they were living at 537 Park Street in Dorchester where the family resided for many years. Ray’s paternal grandmother, Mary J. Greene, lived with the family.
At the time of Ray’s birth, Henry was a bank clerk. The next year, the Clinton directory listed him as a bookkeeper at the First National Bank. By 1910, he was a treasurer at the Walter M. Lowney Company, a chocolate manufacturer known for its Cherry Blossom, a special chocolate-covered cherry with coconut and peanuts mixed into the chocolate shell. The company had a Boston office at 486 Hanover Street, as well as a large factory in Mansfield along the Boston and Providence rail line. Lilla was a musician and “musical advisor,” according to her obituary. Helen, too, was musical, and gave music lessons.
In 1911, Ray graduated from the Mechanic Arts High School, located in the Back Bay at Belvidere and Dalton Streets. He served for eight months in the Massachusetts Cavalry sometime before 1917, according to his World War I draft registration. By 1917, Ray was working as an automobile salesman, his life-long profession. He was employed by the Winton Motor Carriage Company in their Boston showroom, located at 674 Commonwealth Avenue, on Boston’s developing Automobile Row. Later, he was associated with the Ford Motor Company, particularly the Lincoln division, which he began selling in 1924.
Ray enrolled in the Navy on April 2, 1918. On his notecard for Ray B. Greene, Dr. Perkins noted that Ray was a Chief Machinist at the United States Naval Aviation Station in Chatham, Massachusetts. Located on Nickerson Neck (today the site of the Eastward Ho! Country Club), and built in 1917, it was one of the first Naval air stations. One of the main duties of the air station was to patrol the coast, watching for enemy craft; in July 1918, a German U-boat did approach off-shore of Orleans, near Nauset Beach, where it fired on a tug and four barges. Ray was discharged from the Navy on September 30, 1921, though he was probably put on inactive duty prior to his discharge.
In 1920, Ray was again living with his family at 537 Park Street and had returned to selling automobiles. On September 28, 1921, he wed Mabel Gertrude Hunter of Dorchester at Trinity Church in Boston. They had two sons, Ray B., Jr. born in 1923, and Richard H. born in 1926.
Initially, Ray and Mabel lived in Watertown, then Newton. In June 1927, they purchased 9 Prince Street in Needham. A few years later, in 1930, the house was valued at $11,000. They employed a live-in housekeeper; in 1930, the housekeeper was Rachel B. Baker, a 22-year-old from Maine. In 1942, they lived at 17 Prince Street (it is unclear whether they moved or the street was renumbered). Ray was still selling cars, now associated with the T.C. Baker Company, a Ford, Mercury, Lincoln Zephyr dealership on Boylston Street, or Route 9, in Brookline Village. In 1945, Ray ran ads in The Boston Globe encouraging readers to “Sell your car to Ray B. Greene,” offering “Top OPA prices paid for good clean cars from ’35 up.” In the 1950s, Ray and Mabel purchased 226 Great Plain Avenue, Needham, and Ray was a car dealer with Clark and White Lincoln-Mercury.
Ray died on August 8, 1962, of heart disease at New England Deaconess Hospital. A service was held for him at Christ Church in Needham and he was buried in the Needham Cemetery.
Sources
Birth Record, “Massachusetts Vital Records, 1840–1911,” New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts; Ancestry.com
Family Tree; Ancestry.com
“Mrs Mary D Boutelle, Former Resident, Dies,” Fitchburg Sentinel, 20 April 1933: 2; Newspapers.com
“Lowney Chocolate Factory,” Wikipedia.org, last edited on 29 November 2018, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowney_Chocolate_Factory>
“Funeral of Mrs. Lilla Greene,” Fitchburg Sentinel, 1 July 1937: 2; Newspapers.com
Boston Directories; Various Years; Ancestry.com
US Federal Census, 1910, 1920, 1930; Ancestry.com
World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com
“United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940,” St. Louis: National Archives and Records Administration, 1985; FamilySearch.org
“Naval Air Station Chatham,” Wikipedia.org, last edited on 26 June 2019, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Air_Station_Chatham>
Setterlund, Christopher. “Hidden Cape Cod—A Chatham Naval Air Station that Used to Exist,” CapeCod.com, 9 July 2018,
<https://www.capecod.com/lifestyle/hidden-cape-cod-a-chatham-naval-air-station-that-used-to-exist/>
“Massachusetts Marriages, 1841-1915,” Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts, State Archives, Boston; FamilySearch.org
Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration; Ancestry.com
Advertisement, Boston Globe, 18 March 1945: 33; Newspapers.com
“Ray B. Green, 70, Auto Executive, of Needham,” Boston Globe, 9 August 1962; 34
Death Certificate, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, attached to Book 21314, page 116, Norfolk County Registry of Deeds; NorfolkResearch.org