A requiem for Mikey Henry, the pope of Beacon Hill

A fixture on Beacon Hill for decades, Mikey Henry was homeless but far from friendless.

Mikey Henry liked to think of himself as the richest man on Beacon Hill.

It had nothing to do with money or possessions. For most of his adult life, Mikey was penniless and homeless. He slept
outside, often on the benches of Boston Common. He survived on the kindness of strangers, panhandling.

Many of those strangers became friends, and those brief, daily interactions with friends, for years outside the Starbucks
at the corner of Beacon and Charles, were what made Mikey’s life rich.

He was the pope of Beacon Hill.