Marion Gifford Borden Pineau (1916 – 2002) 

WOMEN OF WESTPORT POINT

Marion Gifford Borden Pineau (1916 – 2002) 

Postmistress 

1974-76 Main Road, Westport Point 

A Memory by Susan Montgomery 

When I first moved to The Point in September 1971, Marion and her husband Al were, respectively, assistant postmistress and postmaster, operating the 02791 Post Office in an addition they had built on their house at 1974 Main Road.   At the time, I was young, new to the area, and on my own; in the first week of my new job, teaching in Tiverton, at the same time my new husband was down south in Army basic training.  As luck would have it, Marion and Al were the first people I met on The Point, because the first thing I did was to walk 5 doors down Main Road to the Post Office to sign-up for a P O Box.  They both gave me a warm welcome and easily guessed that I was the winter tenant in ‘the garage apartment.’   

Every day after work that first week, I would go to the Post Office to mail letters, check my (empty) box, and chat with Marion and Al.  Except that first Friday, when I went to Providence to visit a friend and didn’t get home until after the Post Office was closed.  At about 8:00 PM that night, there was a knock on my kitchen door.  When I opened the door, there stood Marion with a flashlight in one hand and three envelopes in the other.  “We noticed you didn’t pick-up your mail and we thought you would like have the three letters that came today, one from your mother and two from your husband.”  I don’t know which made me happier: her neighborly thoughtfulness or the letters.   

As I was to learn, it was also characteristic of Marion to notice who those letters were from.  She once told me that she had correctly identified the recipient of a post card addressed simply to “Grandma, Westport Point, MA 02791.” 

During the years Marion and Al (and then Marion) presided over the Post Office, it was a welcoming, lively social center for the Point.  You could expect to be greeted by everyone gathered inside (and outside in warmer weather,) and Marion would be sure to introduce you to anyone you might not know.  News was shared, friendships blossomed, and neighbors offered each other plants and bulbs from their gardens.  Fifty plus years later, I still have descendent Lady’s Mantle (from Marion’s backyard,) pale yellow Iris (from Helen Wilkinson,) and Angel Wing Begonia (from Dorothy Robbins Gifford Curtis.)