Early Life
Curley's father, Michael Curley, a juvenile petty criminal, left Oughterard, County Galway, Ireland at the age of 14. He settled in Roxbury, an Irish immigrant neighborhood in Boston, where he met Sarah Clancy, also from County Galway. They married, and in 1874, their second son, James Michael Curley, was born.
Michael Curley turned away from a possible criminal career and into working. However, his early criminal connections remained intact. Consequently, when Michael Curley died when his young boy was just 10 years old, leaving the boy's mother a young widow forced to support her children on her own, James was soon enticed into the underworld of Irish politico-crime.
However, his mother continually intervened to turn James away from his father's associates while working at a job scrubbing floors in offices and churches all over Boston.
The combination of his mother instilling good hard working values, while he watched his mother's back-breaking work and struggle against a backdrop of semi-criminal political graft in ward politics, influenced Curley's attitude toward the poor and the utility of political organizing for the rest of his life. Thus, James Curley embarked on a career in politics. His early political career included service in various municipal offices and one term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives (1902–1903).
James had two brothers: John J. (1872–1944) and Michael (born 1879), who died at 2½. Curley married twice, first to Mary Emelda Herlihy (1884–1930) in 1906 and then to Gertrude Casey Dennis in 1937, on his last day as governor.
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