"MOTHER" WAKEFIELD IS DEAD.
Once Kept a Boarding House for
Benefit of Policemen.
Mrs. Sophia L. Wakefield, "mother" of the police department, died of paralysis at 11 o'clock last night at her home, 2906 Penn Valley park. She was 70 years old and a widow. Her husband, a major in the Union army, was killed in the civil war. Funeral arrangements have not been made.
Many of the older members of the police force will remember "Mother" Wakefield, as she was lovingly called in the days when she kept a little boarding house for the benefit of policemen at 206 East Sixth street. No restaurant in the North End, then a better place in which to live than now, could compete with her in the culinary art, and when her pleasant smile of welcome and ready sense of humor were thrown in with the repast, the satisfaction afforded by the meals to the big officers knew no bounds.
Mrs. Wakefiled was born in Chatham, Canada, and came to this city forty years ago. She is survived by two sons, Hank Wakefield, a former circus press agent, and William, a member of a troup of acrobats.
