At the May 5 Annual Town Meeting, discussion and debate will pause around noon for a special event: the recognition of Harvard’s oldest citizen, Rita H. Lombardi, who will be 100 years old Sept. 16. The tradition of honoring the oldest citizen was begun by the Boston Post newspaper in 1909, when it started distributing gold-headed walking canes to hundreds of New England towns to be passed down to their oldest citizens. In Harvard, the tradition was interrupted at two points in time, but it was most recently revived in 2013 by the Harvard Historical Society in conjunction with the town. Lombardi will receive a certificate at Annual Town Meeting, and her name will be engraved on a plaque kept at the Historical Society that lists former honorees. Erhart Muller was the last recipient.
Rita Lombardi. (Courtesy photo)
“What did I do except live?” Lombardi asked her daughter, Peggy Hood of Old Mill Road, upon being told of the recognition she will receive. In talking to her daughter, the Press learned that Lombardi hasn’t just lived; she has lived with a strong Catholic faith, a deep love of family, and a cheerful, upbeat attitude. Hood said her mother “never wakes up grumpy.” “Life is what you make it” are words Lombardi has lived by.
Lombardi was born on Long Island, where she grew up on oatmeal and raw cow’s milk. This early diet may account for her amazing dental health. Hood reported that her mother has all her own teeth and had her first cavity—a very small one—only a few weeks ago. Lombardi believes eating healthy is the secret to a long life.
Singing has been a lifelong pleasure for Lombardi. When she was young, she and a neighbor used to sing together, and they performed a concert in her home every Sunday night. Growing up, she sang in the church choir, and when she was a young woman, her father took her to try out at Carnegie Hall. “She has a very nice voice,” said Hood, “but they were looking for outstanding voices.”
About 11 years ago Lombardi came to live with Hood and her family, and she said she likes being close to family—three of her children, along with grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Hood is one of six children, two of whom have died. One brother is at St. Benedict’s in Still River. In all, Lombardi has 25 grandchildren, five or six great-grandchildren (Hood said she keeps telling herself she should make a list), and two great-great-grandchildren.
Hood said her mother is most proud of her faith and her family. She has liked living in Harvard; she said it is a beautiful and friendly town. Lombardi plans to be at Town Meeting on May 5 to be honored as the oldest citizen in Harvard.
History of the Boston Post cane
The tradition of honoring the oldest citizen began when Boston Post publisher Edwin Grozier came up with the most ambitious of his many promotional schemes to try to keep the struggling paper alive. He began distributing walking canes to the selectmen of hundreds of towns in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island; the selectmen were to award the cane to their town’s oldest citizen, to be passed down upon his death to the next oldest citizen.
The Boston Post called the cane “a tribute to honored and useful lives, to thrift, temperance, and right living, and above all to the superb vigor of New England manhood.” Harvard was one of the original towns to be given a Post cane, and its first recipient was Absolom Gale in 1909. Nine men followed, the last in 1962.
In the 1930s, women, armed with their suffrage, took umbrage at these attributes being recognized only in “manhood” and began demanding equal rights to the Post cane. Richard Grozier, son of Edwin and editor and publisher at the time, readily gave approval. But in Harvard, it would be many years before inclusiveness became a reality.
A break in the tradition came in 1963. With the Boston Post now defunct, the canes were artifacts of historical interest. With this in mind, and the fact that some towns had lost their canes, the Harvard selectmen gave the Post cane on loan to the Harvard Historical Society in a ceremony at Town Meeting. With the shelving of the cane itself, the tradition seemed to come to an end.
Seventeen years later, the Harvard Post newspaper took up the tradition, but rather than take the now rather valuable cane out of storage, the selectmen and the newspaper decided to have a new one made, to be called the Harvard Post cane. The first recipient of the Harvard Post cane was Jennie Heath on June 27, 1980. She was followed by Elvira Scorgie, Eleanor Cottle, Helen Streeter, and Ann Turner. Then, unfortunately, the cane was lost and the second Post cane tradition came to an end.
In 2013, the Harvard Historical Society started a new cycle of the tradition, going back to the original 1909 Boston Post cane award to Harvard’s oldest citizen, in tribute of an honored and useful life. Replacing a cane is a certificate for the recipient and his or her name engraved on a plaque at the society, next to the original Boston Post gold-headed walking cane.
