ABINGTON – Joseph (“Trader Joe”) Monahan, 93, passed away peacefully surrounded by loving family after a brief illness on November 16, 2021.
Born in the Bedford Street, Abington home of his beloved great aunt in 1928, Joe was the second oldest child (and eldest son) of Linna Louise (Meady) Clark and Joseph Monahan (first husband). Joe was one of 16 siblings, many who have pre-deceased him. He was the beloved husband for 65 years to the late Nancy (Skinner) Monahan, father of Susan Mullin (Abington, MA), Donna Campbell and her husband Robert Campbell (Abington, MA), beloved grandad to Timothy and Elias (Gutierrez) Mullin, William and Sara (Rodenhiser) Mullin, Sherri and Sean Malley, Sarah Campbell and Andrew Campbell, and great-grandad to Brendan Paul Malley and Elliott Paul Mullin as well as fun-loving uncle to many nieces and nephews. He was well-known around Abington and leaves behind many great friends.
Joe became smitten as a teen with his future wife Nancy when he delivered groceries to her family from Gates’ Market in Abington Center. As a teen he was scrawny but athletic and fearless, and tried to impress Nancy by doing headstands on the steep peak of the roof of her home. Family legend has it that he dropped out of high school as a sophomore eager to work and join the military, but was rejected as too scrawny when he tried to enlist to serve in WW2. However, the Army re-considered in January of 1951, when he was drafted to serve in the Occupation of Germany during the Korean War. He served as a PFC with the 172nd Infantry Regiment and was honorably discharged in December 1952. Another family legend has it that he began his lifelong sales career with some wheeling and dealing in the German country-side that may have involved cars and arranging for shoe-polishing services for his mates in the Army.
He resumed his courtship of Nancy after discharge, and their subsequent wedding was a whirlwind elopement to New Hampshire and Niagara Falls. They spent the first year of married life in New Orleans, where he took up selling potatoes and enjoying the varied entertainment in the city, including a Mardi Gras celebration. Upon return to Abington, Joe settled with his wife in her family home on Thaxter Avenue, where he resided until his death.
From selling potatoes, Joe moved to a lifelong career of selling cars. His career included stints at Fitzmaurice Motors in Brockton, Abington Motors, a brief time owning his own business in Abington called Abington Motor Sales. For many years he was a successful salesman for Richardson Lincoln Mercury/Haddon Lincoln Mercury of Hanover. A proud member of the Abington VFW and American Legion, Joe spent many a night at those clubs selling cars, having a Miller or two and telling stories (off-color jokes a specialty). For many years, if you took a drive around those parking lots you would see the familiar Haddon stickers on the backs of the Lincolns and Mercuries that filled the parking lot. In his younger years, he also proudly served as an Abington Call Firefighter.
Joe earned the “Trader Joe” nickname early in his career, when he built a reputation of being willing to take almost anything in trade for a car. His daughters recall a grandfather clock, piano and TVs as some of the many items that he took in trade. Joe was always keen for a great publicity stunt, perhaps the most memorable of which took place in the early 1960s, when he drove an amphibious car into Island Grove Pond in Abington, and then when first responders appeared after frantic calls about a car in the lake, collected a paycheck as a call firefighter helping out with the call. He loved to get a photo in the local paper, and one adorable photo shows him driving a lawn mower with his young daughter Susie in tow on a cart behind him.
Joe very much enjoyed spending time with his buddies and his grandchildren, cooking, watching game shows (“Nance-Wheels On!” was his nightly refrain to let his wife know it was time to watch Wheel of Fortune), playing Keno, and regaling any visitor with his vast repertoire of off-color jokes. His whole family agrees that he lived his life his way, breaking most rules, but somehow still found the secret sauce to make it to 93.
Visiting hours will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, November 20, at the Blanchard Funeral Chapel, Plymouth Street (Rte. 58 at the rotary circle) Whitman, MA, with a service immediately after, officiated by family friend Attorney George Whiting. Interment will follow at the Mount Vernon Cemetery in Abington.