Nancy become a fashion model in New York

At 18, Nancy (Hillis) O`Toole left the Midwest to become a fashion model in New York. During World War II, she drove a Red Cross ambulance around Manhattan ferrying returned wounded veterans to treatment.

In the 1950s, she and her husband, Austin, started a home and condominium development company. Later, while raising a family, Mrs. O`Toole opened her own public relations firm and took part in political campaigns. She went back to school to get a bachelor`s degree when she was in her 60s.

"Mother was a go-getter; she never retired," said Austin Scott O`Toole of his mother after she died from cancer March 12 at her Cohasset home. She was 83 and had lived in Cohasset 47 years.

Until her illness was diagnosed in January, Mrs. O`Toole was still working, doing marketing for Maryland-based Constellation Energy, her son said.

A lifelong Republican, she loved politics.

For 13 years, she was administrative assistant to the late representative Mary Jeanette Murray. During that time, at age 63, she took evening classes at University of Massachusetts at Boston and earned the bachelor`s degree she had interrupted years before at Swarthmore College.

She also worked on the campaigns of other Republicans, including former White House chief of staff Andrew Card in reelection campaigns as state representative from Holbrook in 1978 and governor in 1982.

"Nancy was someone who celebrated democracy and loved participation in the political process," Card said yesterday. "Nancy had strong opinions and wasn`t afraid to express them. But she was very respectful of the opinions of others and very kind. "

Mrs. O`Toole, Murray`s first administrative aide, was her right hand person in staging campaigns and handling the press.

"They were both a team, and Nancy was very hard to replace," said Stephanie Landry of Hull, who succeeded Mrs. OToole as aide. "She was a truly remarkable and gracious lady."

State Representative Garrett Bradley, a Democrat who represents the same constituency as did Murray, said though Mrs. O`Toole opposed him on issues, he "had a great deal of respect" for her integrity.

"She believed in the old-time values of the Republican Party," he said.

Whether in politics or in life, no challenge was too great for Mrs. O`Toole to take on, said her son Austin Scott of Boston.

"She was like a snowplow that could go through any snowbank," he said. "She was persistent."

Her daughter, Lynn Durkin of Scituate, attributed her mother`s many accomplishments to her "zest for life."

"She lived every single minute of it," she said. "To her, life was a celebration."