by Abigail A. Ferrante

Family, friends and supporters packed Winchester’s St. Eulalia Church April 9 for the funeral Mass and final good-bye to the late State Sen. Charles E. Shannon Jr.
The senator is survived by his wife Dorothy and their two sons, Michael and Charles E. “Chuck” Shannon III. He lost his battle with cancer April 4 while recovering from treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“Fear was as foreign to Charlie as was removing him from people. It shows in the careers he chose, a police officer, then a local politician and finally a state senator,” said Deacon Thomas Rafferty.

“He was first a husband and father then a friend and politician,” said Rafferty.
Family would come first as he often rearranged his busy schedule to be there for his sons, he said.

People told him he could never do a door-to-door campaign for state senate, the population was just to large, however the Senator and his committee proved them wrong winning on his very first try, he said

Mourners slowly walked through the church doors, a full battalion of Lexington police officers in full-dress uniforms lined the front of the church in honor of Shannon, who was a 20-year veteran. Joining the Lexington officers were police representatives from every city and town in the district.

Once inside, many approached the Shannon coffin, which was draped with a white pall, a quiet prayer or a short moment of silence before filing into the pews.

Gov. Mitt W. Romney, State Senate President Robert E. Travaglini, D-Boston and former State Senate President Thomas F. Birmingham led a collection of public officials who served with Shannon.

Fathers James W. Savage and Thomas F. Nester celebrated over the Rite of Christian Burial Rite. The eulogy was given by the senator’s son, Chuck.

“I will never capture the true representation of my father,” said Chuck. “I think kindness and I think gentility when I think of my father,” he said.

“He was a person who loved to laugh. He laughed so heartily sometimes that tears would roll down his face. I used to make my father laugh all the time,” he said.

“I think that is one of the things that saved him from killing me as a teenager,” he said.

Chuck said he had great memories of his father and his love of his mother. “My parent’s marriage lasted 39 years. The love I saw between them is something I want to emulate in my own marriage,”

“His love was unconditional.” he said.

“After my father died I heard from a longtime friend who is stationed in the middle of the desert in Iraq. He heard of my father’s passing and was so shaken by his death that he called me to say how awful he felt,” he said.

“I couldn’t believe it, in the midst of flying bullets and suicide bombers he is calling me saying that he will never forget spending this past Christmas with Charlie, how things will never be the same,” Chuck said.

“Charlie Shannon is the greatest man I have ever known, good-bye Dad,” he said.

State Sen. Robert A. Antonioni, D-Leominster, said he remembered his colleague and friend as a man who never let a friend down and stood up for those in need.

“I have worked with Senator Shannon for years, He had a wonderful disposition and he was well respected in the Senate,” Antonionti said.

“He was always optimistic, always positive, even during his illness,” he said.

“The large turnout says volumes on how very well regarded he was,” Antonioni said.

“The world has lost a wonderful guy. If you called him he would always call you back, even for the littlest of things. He was a very kind man; if you needed him he would be there,” the late senator’s cousin Anna Bonvie said.

“My heart is ripped over this,” she said.

The service drew to a close with Irish bagpipes by the Boston Gaelic Column, a group made primarily of Boston officers, who also played at the cemetery.

The senator’s fellow police officers, including two mounted state troopers, followed his casket to Winchester’s Wildwood Cemetery, where two buglers from Winchester High School played “Taps,” as the police honor guard stood at present arms and a lone state police helicopter made a low flyover.