BAY STATE PRIMO POL
He mingled with kings, but kept common touch
You can now close that door on political lore in Massachusetts because Bob Crane died yesterday at 91 and we’re not going to see, or hear, or laugh with anyone like him again.
Over the 27 years he served as Massachusetts’ state treasurer, he became the commonwealth’s longest-serving constitutional officer.
It was quite a journey for a Brighton boy who started out at the bottom of Lake Street, then interrupted his education at Boston College to serve as a combat Marine in World War II. That’s about as real as life gets, and perhaps it’s what gave him such a tender heart which, combined with the street smarts of a city kid and an irrepressible personality, made him the quintessential Irish pol.
It was no surprise when he was chosen to be chairman of this state’s Democratic Party, or when he wound up working the floor in Los Angeles for winning candidate John F. Kennedy at the 1960 national convention.
He moved easily in the company of political heavyweights, but also indulged his love of sports, playing tennis with Red Auerbach, golf with John Havlicek, hockey with Bobby Orr on a backyard rink in Wellesley; you might have seen Carl Yastrzemski and umpire Nestor Chylak hanging around Room 227 at the State House, or maybe Luis Tiant, Ferny Flaman, or Chris Nilan.
He wasn’t one to name-drop, but if he was, his biggest boast might have been to have sung with Dennis Day because Crane, a delightful crooner, loved to entertain so much that he put together his own group, the Treasury Notes.
You never saw a more jubilant man than the treasurer while he was entertaining the sick and elderly, which he frequently did, with ditties such as “Give ’Em the Old Razzle Dazzle!”
He was that Kipling man who could walk with kings and not lose the common touch.
His friendship with Kevin White was the stuff of legend.
“I met him at the State House when I was a rep and he was just Joe White’s son. There was a Democratic Party conference at Ted Kennedy’s home to discuss the direction of the party with such notables as Bellotti, Peabody, McCormack, Fitzpatrick, Powers, Collins. The animosity in that room could have fueled a bonfire, and there we were, like two greenhorns getting their first peek at Fenway Park.”
Those greenhorns would become Hall-of-Famers.
Crane was in the 67th year of his marriage to the former Mary Alberts, whom he met while she was attending Mount Saint Joseph Academy in Chestnut Hill. He would forever refer to her as “the best vote I ever won.”
Five years ago, at 86, in what would be his last hurrah, the thenfrail Crane eulogized his buddy, White, at Saint Cecilia’s Church, twice bringing the massive congregation to its feet before closing with a line that seems fitting this morning: “The song may be over, but the melody will linger forever.” Indeed it will. Goodbye, good friend, and God bless.