By ARI L. GOLDMAN NY TIMES Paul Revere, to whom Boston turned repeatedly whenever it wanted to celebrate a direct link to his Colonial ancestor's midnight ride, died on Wednesday at his home in Braintree, Mass. He was 85. Mr. Revere, a Boston milkman for 30 years, was a fourth-generation descendant of the Paul Revere who warned of the coming of the British in 1775, his family said. Mr. Revere's daughter, Paula Rappoli of Harrisburg, N.C., said yesterday that her father was a "good sport" who participated in numerous patriotic events and Revolutionary War re-enactments. Many years ago, he drove his milk truck along Revere's historic trail from Boston to Concord and Lexington. On another occasion, he rode part of the trail on horseback. But the modern day Paul Revere had his limits. "He wouldn't put on that uniform," Ms. Rappoli said. Mr. Revere also resisted being drawn into discussions about the veracity of his famous ancestor's tale. Revere was, in fact, only one of several horsemen on that fateful night and was captured by the British as other riders completed the course. Just about every year on Patriot's Day, the state holiday that commemorates the battle that followed the ride, the phone would ring in the Revere home, with some prankster shouting, "The British are coming!" Mr. Revere was born in Braintree, a town 10 miles southeast of Boston, in April 1917. The date was Patriot's Day, his family said, but since 1969 the state holiday has been celebrated on the third Monday in April, rather than on April 19, the date of the Battle of Concord. As readers of Longfellow know, the ride itself started on the "18th of April in '75." Mr. Revere is survived by his wife, Mabel, and a brother, George Washington Revere, who lives in Connecticut. He also had three sisters, with whom the family said it had lost contact. He is also survived by another daughter, Pamela J. Leip of Ashland, Mass., and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Mr. Revere, too, served his country in wartime. After graduating from Braintree High School, he enlisted in the Army, fought as an infantryman in World War II in North Africa and Italy and won a Bronze Star. After the war he became a milkman for White Brothers Milk Company and its successor, the Whiting Milk Company. When the company went out of business, he became the sexton at First Congregational Church in Braintree. Mabel Revere said that many of her grandchildren have Paul or Revere as a middle name but that there is not another Paul Revere in her family because "we only had daughters." |