The Legacy of Helene O'Shea
Twelve years ago this summer, O’Shea Builders’ biggest fan and some say its toughest advocate passed away. That was Helene O’Shea, Bud’s first wife and mother of David, Maureen, Linda, and Mike.
Bud met Helene after high school through a local group for Catholic youth. The group had regular social events like picnics and dances. At one dance, it was Helene’s birthday and Bud requested the song “The Old, Gray Mare” be played for her. She was always fondly teasing him and he returned the favor. It worked. “That was the start of us,” Bud says.
They dated until Bud joined the Army in Germany two years later. On his first leave he proposed to her and they were married in July, 1957. She followed him back to Germany, despite her father’s warning that the country didn’t have potable water or soap.
It was the beginning of 50 years of marriage and business partnership.
“I can say, without hesitation, that this company would not be in existence today had it not been for her strong determination to bring us through some very difficult years,” Bud says. She charmed clients to send a check when the cashflow was slow. When people called the office and asked for him, Helene said: “I will connect you to big, handsome, Bud!”
“She was the silent power,” says Helene’s daughter, Maureen. “My mom was the life of the business. She knew everybody in the community and they all knew her.”
“Mom never failed to let people know how proud she was of her kids,” Mike says. “My mom was always very proud of the O’Shea name and what we did.”
“She was ahead of her time. Women were not in construction when she started in the business,” says David O’Shea III, Helene’s grandson. “It was a man’s world. If I could compare her to anybody, it would be (World War II General) George Patton. If you served under Patton, you loved him. But he was no nonsense and you knew right where you stood with him…I have talked to so many people over the years who have said, ‘I miss her so much.’ I say, ‘I do, too.’”
Along with being a co-owner of O’Shea Builders, a devout churchgoer, a mother to four, and a grandmother to 13, Helene was also a published author. In “A Handful of Prisms,” a book she penned in 2004 based on her childhood, Helene wrote:
"Memory is a prism. It catches the light of our laughter and shines it deeper hued on our sorrow and renders our grief less searing. In memory, the snowflakes fall without the cold smarting our eyes. Backward glances show us ourselves dancing through the rain, but block out the soggy shoes vainly set to dry over the heating stove…I will share a secret with you. Old is okay. You’re wise, and at least to your face, your children respect you and there’s contentment when you look back on what you achieved. But it’s more fun to be young.”