In 1910, William Howard Taft was in the White House, the average worker took home 22 cents per hour, and only about 8,000 people in the United States owned a car.
This was the world that Frances Prest, Francestown’s oldest citizen, was born into.
Prest, the holder of Francestown’s Boston Post Cane, gifted to the oldest person in town, died on March 3 at the age of 108, in her daughter’s home in Francestown.
She was elegant to the end, her friends and family said.
“My mother always wore pearls,” her daughter, Carol Barr said.
Despite the common wisdom that pearls go with evening wear, Barr said, her mother made a point to don them first thing in the morning. It’s a lifelong habit that her family will pay homage to during her memorial service, scheduled for this Saturday. Female attendees will be given a pearl, along with a bookmark as a nod to Prest’s career as a manuscript proofer for Riverside Press and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
It was the kind of thing her mother would have been proud of, Barr said – looking out at a sea of women wearing pearls before 4 p.m.
Prest came to the United States from her native Novia Scotia, Canada, in 1916. Her family immigrated to Boston, Massachusetts, following the death of her younger sister.
It was in Massachusetts she met and married her husband, C. Ashley Prest, in 1947. They moved to Francestown in 1956 to be closer to her husband’s family.
Prest’s niece, Keturah “Kitty” Barker, said her aunt was like a grandmother figure to her.
“She was just always sweet,” Barker said. “She was always baking. She would make madeleines for me, and I would sit in her kitchen as she baked and told stories. She never had a negative thing to say about anyone.”
Prest and her husband remained on Main Street in Francestown throughout their marriage, until C. Ashley Prest’s death from cancer in 1981. When she was no longer able to live alone, she moved in with Barr and her husband in 1994, which kept her on Main Street in Francestown.
Prest received the Boston Post Cane in 2006, when she was 95 years old. That year, she was featured in the Francestown Labor Day parade, which had a theme of “A Day in the Life.” Topped with a tiara and a wearing a silk scarf, and practicing a perfect princess wave, she rode in a convertible advertising her lengthy life – numbered at 34,988 days.
As it turned out, 95 was still young for Prest, who would live for more than a decade more. She remained vibrant throughout her long life, Barr said.
“She was still singing, writing poetry, still exercising,” she said. And maintained a positive attitude – she began every morning by singing “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.”
In her later years, living with her daughter, she enjoyed certain rituals, such as singing silly songs like, “Yes, We Have No Bananas Today,” or reciting nursery rhymes.
That love may have been life long, as Barker noted her aunt often expressed her affection with rhymes like, “I love you a bushel and a peck, and a hug around your neck.”
Barr said it became traditional to end each day with her mother by reading poetry and nursery rhymes, and a final affirmation to end the day: “I am strong, I am well, I am safe and I am loved.”
“She had a heart and soul filled with kindness and love and gratitude,” Barr said.
A memorial service is planned for Saturday at 2 p.m., at the Old Meeting House, in Francestown. Following the service, a reception is planned at the Francestown Town Hall. Donations in her memory may be made to the Francestown Improvement & Historical Society, P.O. Box 147, Francestown.
Ashley Saari can be reached at 924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.