Woolwich recognized its new, oldest resident Monday morning when the select board gathered outside an attractive home on Murphy’s Corner Road to pass the town’s ceremonial Boston Post Cane to Geraldine “Gerry” Harvey Edgerly. She will celebrate her 98th birthday on Veterans’ Day, Nov. 11.

Edgerly was a bit surprised but pleased by all the attention. Some people remember her from working in the Lincoln County Courthouse in Wiscasset. She was an assistant clerk of courts there for 17 yrs. She has been active in Woolwich Historical Society for many years.

She was born in 1922 in Somerset County in the little farming town of Pittsfield, to J. Donald and Glenn Harvey. Edgerly lived with her grandmother, Lillian Shorey, while attending elementary school in Pittsfield. After graduating from eighth grade, she went to live with her parents in the western Maine village of Bethel and attended Gould Academy her freshman year of high school. The Harvey family soon moved again, this time to Bath, where she graduated from Morse High School in 1941.

She met her late husband Loring “Larry” Edgerly in her senior year. He was a good looking, ambitious young man a few years older than she was. She said their courtship lasted about three years. They were married in 1944 when Larry, a WWII veteran, was home on leave from the U.S. Army. His tour of duty took him to the Middle East where he was part of the Persian Gulf Command in Iran. Following the war, the couple built a home on Murphy's Corner Road where Gerry still lives. 

The couple raised two children, Sylvia Edgerly Wallace and Dana Edgerly, who also live in Woolwich. Gerry has three grandchildren, Robyn Roberts of Flower Mound Texas, Jacob Wallace, from York, and Hillary Warring of Bath. Gerry has two great grandchildren, Liam and Naomi Wallace of York.

Longevity seems to thrive in the family. Larry received the ceremonial walking stick in December 2013. He died at 98 on April 22, 2015. His mother, father and sister were Boston Post Cane recipients in Whitefield.

His widow’s advice to the younger generation is to simply live by the Golden Rule, treat others like you yourself would want to be treated. “Be kind. Be generous. Get along with others and don’t fight,” she said.

Her sister Gloria Dow of Wiscasset was married to the late Harold Dow; another sister, Marjorie, now deceased, was married to the late Stanley Morris also of Wiscasset.

The passing of the Boston Post Cane is a tradition unique to New England. It began in 1909 as a publicity stunt thought up by the publisher of the Boston Post newspaper, which closed in 1957 but the passing of the canes continues. Over 400 New England communities including Wiscasset carry on the tradition. Select board chairman David King Sr. said the cane presented Monday  isn’t the real one. The town keeps its original, a jet black ebony walking stick with a 14-karat gold crown, on display at the town office.

Margaret Gardiner of Phipps Point Road was the previous holder. She died in February.