Virginia Hathaway turned 98 in October, making her Marion’s oldest citizen. Selectman Jonathan Henry and COA Director Susan Schwager, along with Virginia’s daughter Ann, celebrated the event by awarding her Marion’s Boston Post Cane.
Hathaway was born in Hartford, Connecticut. She and her brother, Edward, lost their mother when Hathaway was 7 years old. After her mother’s death, her father, Albert Humphrey, moved the family back to Rochester where he was from. Her husband, Alonzo Hathaway, owned the Marion General Store, and when he passed away, Virginia sold it to Jack Cheney.
Her hobbies include tole painting, reading, making pickles, and decorating. She graduated from the Swain School of Design and taught art at Friends’ Academy.
“She always had an artistic bent,” says her daughter Ann, with whom she lives.
Hathaway lost her brother when he was in his 30s while he was a paratrooper in the U.S. Army. He jumped from a plane and his parachute failed to open.
The awarding of Marion’s Boston Post Cane has been ongoing since 1909 when the now defunct Boston Post sent each town in Massachusetts a cane to be presented to the oldest citizen of that town. The cane is subsequently passed down to the next surviving oldest resident.
The “fine gold-headed ebony stick is to be carried by the oldest citizen,” declared the Boston Post in an August 1909 announcement. The canes were manufactured by J.F. Fradley & Co. of New York. The canes are of Gaboon ebony from the Congo. The ebony was shipped to the United States in logs about seven feet long, which were then cut into stick lengths. It took approximately one year from the arrival of the logs to the completion of the canes. It has a 14-karat gold head with the town’s name inscribed and a plaque with the initials of those who received the cane over time.
