Mae Bertha Upperman of Malden, Massachusetts, died on September 25, 2024 after an illness of over five years. She was born on May 2, 1937 the daughter of the late Eugene M. and Pearl Griggs Upperman and sister to her beloved “Sonny”, the late Eugene M. Upperman, Jr.
Survivors include her nephews Eugene Marcellus Upperman III and Eric M. Upperman and their mother Elizabeth Upperman. Others are Marc's wife Towanna Upperman, Eric’s wife Michelle and their children Quincy, Miles and Gavin Bryce. Cousin Lorrie Stratton and God daughter Candace Jackson were among the many whom she loved.
Mae earned a BS in Adult Education, Counseling and Physical Therapy at Tufts University and an M. Ed at Boston University. Later she studied Social Policy at Boston College Graduate School of Social Work, with field study in The People’s Republic of China.
Her career included years in community health as a physical therapist, working in homes, the community, and major hospitals. While working for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, she combined her health and education backgrounds to build programs for young, severely disabled children. She developed new service models and helped establish statewide interagency systems, policies and networks to serve these children and their parents. This work involved teaching, training teachers and parents, program development, management, and administration.
Though children were always a great part of her life, retirement also involved her with her peers – at home at the Heritage House in Malden, Massachusetts, in the community during 20 years volunteering at the Mystic Valley Elder Services, and with a loving church family which included a vibrant corps of seniors.
Mae traveled extensively for pleasure, study, business and mission work. Her destinations included China, England, Scotland, Israel and Haiti. She loved cities, with Boston and Asbury Park, her childhood home, being her favorites. She was an avid reader, book collector, writer, and artist. Towards the end of her life she donated her artwork and her extensive collection of books by and about Black Women to the Black Feminist Archives at University of Massachusetts Amherst, and her work and life are featured there.
Throughout her life Mae struggled to develop her mind, body, and soul and was ever grateful to God, her family, her friends, teachers, spiritual guides, church family, doctors, therapists and her longtime psychiatrist, all of whom were deeply important in her life. Most near and dear were her “Heart-Sisters”: Carol Glenn, Dorcas Grigg-Saito, Liling Yang and Jamaican sisters Launa Cooper and Dorothy Berry. We know she loved us as we loved her.
All services are private.