Margaret Giles, a former meter maid for the Portland Police Department and longtime switchboard operator at the Osteopathic Hospital of Maine, died Saturday.

She was 94.

She was remembered by loved ones Tuesday as a strong Irish Catholic woman who devoted her life to her family and generously gave back to the community.

She grew up in Portland’s Bayside neighborhood on Greenleaf Street. As a youngster, she attended Cathedral Grammar School, but the story goes that the former Miss Connolly switched schools after her best friend at Cathedral Grammar got caught smoking and was expelled.

She graduated from Portland High in 1941, and then worked as a laborer on Liberty Ships at the South Portland Shipyards during World War II.

In 1945, she married James E. “Big Jimmy” Lee, a Portland firefighter, who died Nov. 6, 1966. She was left to raise two young children, then 8 and 10 years old.

“She muscled her way through that and got us through that very difficult time,” said her son, James Lee of Scarborough. “She worked. She provided anything we could have ever imagined. She was a real salt of the earth woman. She was very much liked by her peers. My friends became her friends. She was very multi-generational.”

In the mid 1950s, Mrs. Giles worked as a meter maid for the Portland Police Department.

She handed out parking tickets in the city’s Old Port area for more than five years.

“She was sensitive to the needs of the business community,” her son said. “If she saw someone with a vehicle a little overdue and she knew they were doing business, she would probably wait before giving them a ticket.”

In those days, she also served as a school crossing guard at Bramhall Square. Her children said Tuesday that she looked out for kids in the community. If she saw a kid without suitable shoes or a coat, she would provide them.

“She was a big caretaker,” her son said.

In 1967, Mrs. Giles went to work as a switchboard operator at the Osteopathic Hospital of Maine. She retired in 1980.

Around that time, she rekindled a relationship with a former shipyard co-worker, Howard Giles of Saco. They were married for two years before he died of cancer in 1982.

Her children said Tuesday that she was a devoted mother who thought of others before herself.

She volunteered in the Cheverus High School community, at St. Joseph’s Manor, St. Maximillian Kolbe Church and St. Patrick’s Church.

Her daughter, Regina Day of Scarborough, said she was kind, gracious and tremendously supportive.

“I really admired her dedication to her family and friends,” Day said. “It was deep dedication. I really admired her can-do spirit. … The lessons she gave us are so deeply instilled. I’ll miss the twinkle in her eye and her eagerness to always help.”

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