At 105, newest Cane holder stays young at heart

MARBLEHEAD – Alice McGill Tompkins, a 105-year-old resident of Lafayette Rehabilitation and Nursing Home, was recently presented the historic Boston Post Cane, in recognition of her status as the town's oldest living resident. In November, Marblehead Selectman Jackie Belf-Becker presented Tompkins with the cane and a plaque — a New England tradition that dates back more than 100 years.

In 1909, a year before Tompkins was born, The Boston Post newspaper asked 700 selectman from communities across Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island to present, on the paper's behalf, a cane to the eldest citizen of their respective towns. Exported from forests of equatorial West Africa, and made of Gaboon ebony, one of the world's most expensive lumbers, the canes were fashioned in New York by renowned cane maker J.F. Fradley. Once polished to a high luster, the canes were then heavily embellished with a 14-karat gold cap inscribed "As presented by The Boston Post to the Oldest Citizen of, [the town]."