LEEDS — Marion Additon was presented with the Boston Post Cane at a recent gathering of family and friends, celebrating her 95th birthday. Selectman Errol Additon, her oldest son, presented the cane on behalf of the Town of Leeds and the Leeds Historical Society. Additon is Leeds’ oldest citizen and was honored with a replica of the original ebony, gold headed cane which can be seen in the Leeds Town Office.

The Boston Post canes date back more than 100 to August 1909, when Edwin A. Grozier, publisher of the Boston Post newspaper, gave 700 New England towns a cane, to be presented with the compliments of the Boston Post to the oldest male citizen of the town, to be used by him as long as he lived (or moved from the town), and at his death handed down to the next oldest citizen of the town. In 1930, after considerable controversy, eligibility for the cane was opened to women as well.

Additon was born in Greene on Sept. 22, 1916, the daughter of the late Velma and Alton Hodgkins. She grew up with her three siblings on the North River Road in Greene. Her father was a blacksmith, and her mother worked at the dowel factory in Greene village. She went to school on Main Street in Greene, where the present Greene Fire Department is located. For high school, she traveled across the river to Leavitt Institute, and that is where she met classmate Elden Additon from Leeds.

Marion and Elden were married in 1941 and moved into the big farmhouse on Additon Hill. They lived there until they moved to a new house on Additon Road in 1971. The Additons had four sons, Errol, Keith, Ken and Ellis.

“I’m pretty lucky,” said Additon. “I’m still able to live on my own, I’m pretty healthy and I have a lot of good people who help me.” She says she has had a quiet but good life. For many years she drove a “school bus,” her station wagon, carrying students from Leeds to Turner. She’s a member of the Leeds Community Church where she sang in the choir. She enjoyed being on the farm, raising her family and helping with farm work when they needed an extra hand, getting hay down, feeding calves, chasing cows when they escaped and, for more than 20 years, driving a truck while her husband chopped corn.

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