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Gold Star Wives honored during somber ceremony at State House

Jeanette Rose-Gutshall of Weymouth (right) and Frances Waltman of Malden shared a moment during the State House ceremony Tuesday to honor Gold Star Wives.Lane Turner/Globe Staff/Globe Staff

Mary G. McMahon accepted that her husband had a dangerous job. It’s part of life for military families. After Marine Captain William A. McMahon died in 1959 as his plane crashed in the Aleutian Islands, she always remembered something he told her.

“He said, there have to be women like you standing behind men like me, because we are the first line of defense,’ ” Mary McMahon recalled. “They’re not just wanderers in the desert. We were a base for them — a home base.”

McMahon is part of a mournful fellowship of spouses who have lost husbands and wives in service to the military, and on Tuesday she joined other members of the Gold Star Wives of America to mark the 71st anniversary of the organization during a State House ceremony.

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The Boston chapter of the organization sent a group of representatives to meet with Governor Charlie Baker and other state officials.

Baker, who issued a proclamation declaring Tuesday Gold Star Wives day, said those who have lost loved ones serving the country have made a special contribution.

“It is only right and just that we . . . recognize, honor, and celebrate your willingness to let your loved one go off and put him or herself in harms way and take that terrible chance that they might not come home,” Baker said.

Chapter president Peggy Griffin said the group is united in loss.

“We are unique because we do not wish to grow,” she said. “The cost of membership is far too high.”

The Boston chapter of the Gold Star Wives is the second-oldest in the nation, Griffin said. The organization was founded in New York.

The group has provided a gateway to resources for families who have lost a service member and been a place to share common experiences. The Gold Star Wives in Massachusetts also serve as advocates for affected families.

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This year, the organization is pushing for a change in state law that it says would make more simple the definition of a Gold Star family.

The wives organization includes people who have spouses killed in action, died on duty, or perished from disabilities suffered during their service.

Not all state services that take into account the Gold Star definition — including special license plates — include the latter as a category, Griffin said.

“It results in a lot of confusion and a sense of unfairness,” she said in an interview.

Her husband, Army veteran Charles J. Sabatier Jr. died in 2009 of an illness attributed to the paralysis he suffered when he was shot while running to help a wounded soldier in Vietnam.

The bill is tied up in a legislative study, Griffin said.

At the ceremony Tuesday, all the Gold Star wives received the same honor.

Dressed in canary-colored caps that denoted their Gold Star status, they lined up to receive roses tied with purple ribbons and handed out by first lady Lauren Baker.

Griffin said she has been moved by the experiences she’s shared with her fellow Gold Star Wives, a feeling that has grown since she joined.

“I remember walking into the meeting thinking, these ladies are a lot older than I am. They are a lot different than I am,” she said. “But once I was there, I realized I’d found the right place.”

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Andy Rosen can be reached at andrew.rosen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @andyrosen.