A cold wind ripped at the Christmas decorations at Saint Mary’s Star of the Sea Church on Dec. 11, but it was not an ill wind. Cold or not, mourners wishing to pay their last respects to former Mayor Dennis Collins made their way up the steps and into the warm interior, greeted by organ music and a tenor’s voice singing “Oh Danny Boy.”
This was one of Collins’ favorite songs, and a song the Bridgemen marching band played in front of his home on St. Patrick’s Day when they heard he was ill two years ago.
Many of the earliest to arrive were elderly, their expressions shaped not by the weather, but with grief and affection for the man they have known most of their lives – a man from an older and faded time who takes with him a vision of a different Bayonne.
“He is what should be defined as the best. He spent his life caring about others and getting the job done for the people of the great city of Bayonne.” – Joseph Doria
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Once a worker for the Bayonne Municipal Sewerage Authority, he often joked about the character Ed Norton from “The Honeymooners” TV show, who portrayed a sewerage worker.
Later, public officials arrived: local officials, ex-mayors, and others who had been close to Collins in life. Some like Gov. Jon Corzine paid their respects at the wake, and their absence at the funeral stripped the ceremony of any pretentions. Those who came wanted to be there. Many were near tears when they entered and came out from the funeral an hour later weeping openly.
Warm words
Monsignor Lawrence J. Miller called Collins “a man for all seasons” who “truly worked on behalf of Bayonne.” He said most of the people in attendance could probably recall good deeds Collins had done for them and their families.
“He served God, his family, Bayonne, and beyond Bayonne,” Monsignor Miller said. “He would help anyone and talk to anyone, and he followed the way of God. Like Jesus Christ, Collins did good for people and not for himself.”
Collins, Miller went on, didn’t boast of his accomplishments. His deeds stood on their own merits.
“He lived an extraordinary life. He cared and serviced his community. He is a good person who has been called back home.”
Outside, as pallbearers brought him out for his last trip to be buried, a member of the Bridgemen played “Taps,” followed by bagpipes as his body was placed in the hearse.
Most of the state and federal dignitaries attended the wake, not the funeral, leaving those most close to Collins to share in those final moments.
“I was very saddened to hear of Mayor Collins’ passing. I looked up to him and was fortunate to benefit from his wisdom and mentoring during my campaign and at the beginning of my tenure as freeholder,” said Freeholder Doreen DiDomenico. “I haven’t encountered anyone in the city of Bayonne, the county of Hudson, or for that matter, the state of New Jersey who had anything but the highest regard for Dennis Collins and his devotion and service to his hometown.”
Former State Sen. and Bayonne Mayor Joseph Doria, one of the people whom Collins took under his wing, also attended.
“Mayor Dennis Collins will always be a rare and special gift to Bayonne,” he said. “He is what should be defined as the best. He spent his life caring about others and getting the job done for the people of the great city of Bayonne.”
Former Economic Development Director Michael O’Connor said he admired Collins from O’Connor’s early childhood.
“He lived a few doors down from me,” he said, recalling people’s reaction each election day when O’Connor handed out palm cards for voters. “People would just ask me who Mayor Collins supported. That’s who they intended to vote for.”
O’Connor also remembered a few years ago when he, Collins, and then-Mayor Doria went to one of the senior buildings for St. Patrick’s Day.
“It was a miserable rainy night. Something happened to the DJ,” O’Connor recalled. “Dennis Collins stood up and started to sing some Irish songs – including ‘Colonial Boy’ and ‘Danny Boy.’ He was always prepared for even the smallest thing and had an encyclopedic knowledge about the people of this town.”
Jack Butchko said he met Collins for the first time during the 1968 Democratic primary, when he was handing out literature at No. 3 School. Collins agreed to allow Butchko to establish the Young Democrats Organization.
Butchko later worked for Collins’ mayoral office, and Collins was instrumental in helping Butchko work for congressmen. Collins even pushed to have Butchko named as the deputy executive director of the Hudson County Democratic Organization.
“Even when I was working in Washington, I came back when he needed me,” Butchko said. “I was with him for three Democratic national conventions.”
Collins, Butchko recalled, was a big boxing fan. Butchko arranged to have Collins made an honorary member of the Cauliflower Alley Club, a show business support group for boxing.
Collins went to Ireland in the 1980s. On the day he came back to Bayonne, it was raining.
“He said, ‘Do you know what they called it when it rains over there?’ ” Butchko said. “ ‘It is a soft day.’ He loved that phrase, and used it to mean a lucky or fortunate day. Irish legend says that if it rains on the day of your wake or your funeral, it is a lucky day.”
Although it did not rain for Collins’ funeral, it did rain for his wake. The host of dignitaries attending his wake – including Gov. Jon Corzine and others – had to make their way through the soft-day drizzle to wish Collins farewell.