NAHANT — Nahant Historical Society co-founder Calantha Sears, 101, was honored with the Boston Post Cane — a traditional cane presented to a municipality’s oldest resident — Saturday morning at the Nahant Community Center.
A crowd of town officials and Sears’ friends and family roared in applause as Sears, with an unrelenting ear-to-ear smile, made her way into the room, stopping to chat one-on-one with her fellow Nahanters.
“She’s the heart and soul of this town,” said Cultural Council member Ken Turino.
The passing of the Boston Post Cane began in 1909 when The Boston Post Publisher Edwin Grozier delivered an ebony cane to Watertown with instructions that the city award the cane to its oldest resident. The Post went on to deliver more than 700 canes to municipalities across the Commonwealth.
As a historical society member, Sears was formerly in charge of presenting the cane to its former keepers — the most recent of whom was her late sister Lucy Doane, who died in 2010 at the age of 102.
When Town Moderator David Conlin presented the cane to Sears, he pointed out that she wrote the certificate he was reading.
“The award I’m about to read you — you wrote,” Conlin said. “This is a unique opportunity because this year, the cane is going out not just to Nahant’s oldest citizen, but Nahant’s most beloved citizen.”
When Sears accepted the cane, she temporarily put aside her walker and stood with it while she made a brief speech about the town she loves.
“As you get older, you get more appreciative of being in a community that is so caring to their older people. Besides my family, who are wonderful, the church and all the organizations in the town just take good care of all of us older people,” Sears said.
She added that while some folks fear receiving the cane, believing it to be a bad omen, she felt honored to receive it.
“Some people, when they were nominated for the Boston Post Cane, they were kind of negative about it and they said ‘this is the kiss of death.’ I look at it as the kiss of life,” she said.
Sears was born on Oct. 17, 1921, in the Hyland Road home her parents had built in 1916. She is a third-generation Nahanter whose grandfather, Albert Wilson, worked as a foreman and built many of the summer retreats and small houses in town.
After working with fellow Nahanter Irene Cullinan to organize the town’s 1976 Bicentennial Parade, Sears and Cullinan founded the Nahant Historical Society to preserve the town’s records and artifacts.
Sears also worked as a children’s librarian at the Nahant Public Library for 17 years. At the time, there was no library at the elementary school, so she would select 25 books for each classroom and deliver them to the children herself.
Cullinan, like many who attended Sears’ cane ceremony, described her as a talented and knowledgeable leader, and a kindhearted friend.
“I’ve never heard her say a bad word about anyone,” Cullinan said. “She’s always dedicated to her town. If someone came in and didn’t know something about Nahant, we’d always ask her.”
Sears said in her 101 years as a Nahant resident, she treasured the memory of her 90th birthday celebration the most. She said she was moved to see the community come together to celebrate her birthday, and she enjoyed taking a ride on the back of a motorcycle.
When asked if she had any wisdom to impart on those younger than her, Sears said she wanted people to resolve their differences and work together.
“I would like people to get along with each other and solve their problems peacefully without violence or cruelty,” Sears said. “I like peace, and I like it when people get along and work together instead of turning against each other.”
