Applebees Honors 'Our Cop' Officer Maguire

worked the 'B' shift, which meant catching nighttime calls at the city's restaurants.

One of those restaurants was near the Route 128/38 rotary.

"He was always very calm whenever he had to come in here," recalled Applebees General Manager Danita DiGregorio.

When Officer Maguire was the employees of Applebees were shocked.

"It was devastating," DiGregorio said. "Our staff said, he's our cop. We have to do something."

Although Applebees is known as a national chain, DiGregorio said the employees are attached to their Woburn neighborhood and felt the pain of Officer Maguire's death as much as the city did.

DiGregorio asked Officer Maguire's family and friends if they would help put together a "Neighborhood Hero" wall honoring "their cop."

The wall had been in the making for about a year, said Sue Sullivan, a friend of the Maguire family who helped put the homage together.

"I wanted to do this for him," said Sullivan. "Jack was a wonderful person. We were fortunate that he was our friend for so many years."

Sullivan used a mix of personal and professional photos on the wall, all of which were "carefully chosen."

—the store that Officer Maguire was responding to the night he was killed—donated all of the frames used for the wall in his memory.

Officer Maguire's brother, Chuck, said he was pleased with the memorial.

"It's so well done," he said.

Walking along the wall, he pointed to a photo of he and Jack as youngsters. Using the car in the background as a reference, Chuck said the photo was probably taken when the Maguire boys were 8 and 11 years old, around 1958. But Chuck's favorite photo was the drawing donated by Gina Johnson, he said.

Desiree Maguire, Jack's widow, said she was thankful of the generosity of Applebee's for dedicating an entire wall to her husband.

"My friend Sue Sullivan went to such great lengths for this memorial," she added. "And Officer Bob Friberg has helped us in so many ways."

Sullivan said that Officer Friberg suggested pinning a pair of dress white gloves from a police uniform on the wall in the center of the photos.

For Desiree, the wall brings mixed emotions.

"I love seeing the pictures," she said, standing in front of the wall and looking at a photo of her husband grinning into a camera. "I can handle it some days more than others. Sometimes I feel like he should be right beside me."

The Neighborhood Hero wall honoring Officer Jack Maguire is now a permanent part of the restaurant's decor. Applebees is located at 2 Elm St. in the Stop & Shop plaza near the Routes 128/38 rotary.