, frequent Wollaston golfer
Dorothy Sweeney with her husband, Charles, and Ed Sullivan.

By Stephanie M. Peters
Globe Correspondent / August 24, 2009

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Dorothy (McEliney) Sweeney, a World War II Army nurse who later raised 10 children, possessed the strong will required for both tasks, tempered with what friends and family described as an awesome sense of humor.

Mrs. Sweeney knew how to make others laugh, whether donning a flapper dress during a party at her home or trading jokes with her golf partners, according to her friends and family.

Mrs. Sweeney suffered a heart attack Aug. 16 and died Wednesday at the River Bay Club in Quincy, a retirement center. She was 88 and a longtime resident of Milton and Naples, Fla.

Born and raised in Woburn, Mrs. Sweeney was a 1940 graduate of St. John’s Nursing School in Lowell. Shortly after graduation, she enlisted in the Army Air Corps and was stationed as a nurse at Eglin Air Force Base in Eglin, Fla.

At the base, she met Charles W. Sweeney, a young Air Force pilot who would later be known for dropping the atomic bomb over Nagasaki, Japan, effectively ending World War II.

The couple married in 1943 and was stationed together at various bases stateside before Mr. Sweeney was placed on a secret mission and sent overseas, according to their son Joseph of Milton.

When the war ended in 1945, Mrs. Sweeney left the military to return to civilian nursing and raise her family in Milton, while her husband returned to a career in the Massachusetts Air National Guard.

“When I was a kid, he traveled a lot,’’ her son said. “She was like a single mother to [us] kids.’’

Mrs. Sweeney worked as a general practitioner nurse at hospitals throughout Boston and the South Shore, including Marian Manor in South Boston, Milton Hospital, and Carney Hospital in Dorchester, where she spent the majority of her career.

She also reveled in cooking, gardening, and entertaining at the family’s home in Milton Hill. Five of her children’s weddings were held at the Milton Hill house, with Mrs. Sweeney serving as the chief party planner.

“She loved to entertain,’’ her son said. “My parents would have big dinner parties and would host everyone from bishops to the governor.’’

Thanks to General Sweeney’s notoriety for his role in WWII, the Sweeneys also traveled around the world, meeting kings, presidents, and entertainers, their son said.

In 1951, Mrs. Sweeney, a big baseball fan, had the thrill of throwing out the first pitch of a Red Sox game on Armed Forces Day.

One of Mrs. Sweeney’s greatest passions, however, was golf. After daily Mass, a round of golf at Wollaston Golf Club in Milton, where she was a member for the past 54 years and was known for carrying her own clubs, was part of her routine.

Dick and Connie Curtis of Milton joined the golf club around the same time and began playing weekly with Mrs. Sweeney.

“When I came off the 18th hole, I’d still be laughing,’’ Connie Curtis said. “She was just a great gal.’’

Fifteen years ago, Mrs. Sweeney helped Dick Curtis start a golf tournament for octogenarians at the club, though neither was old enough to enter. Mrs. Sweeney, whom Curtis nicknamed the “Grand Dame,’’ showed up in her nurse’s uniform in case her services were needed, he said.

“She went on to win the women’s tournament when she turned 80,’’ he said.

In 1984, Mrs. Sweeney moved to Naples, Fla., shortly after she and Charles Sweeney divorced. She continued to work as a volunteer nurse in Naples area hospitals and for hospice, and returned in the summers to Milton, where she would stay with her son Joseph.

In addition to him, Mrs. Sweeney leaves two other sons, Charles W. Jr. of Laguna Beach, Calif., and Terence M. of Gilbert, Ariz.; six daughters, Patricia O’Neill of Cheshire, Conn., and Newport, R.I., Marylyn A. Howe of Marshfield Hills, Carol Sweeney-Boyd of Milton, Rosemary J. Gunning of Norwell, Elizabeth S. of Falmouth, and Bonnie of Boston; 24 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

A funeral Mass will be said at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow at St. Agatha Parish in Milton.

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