Centennial Cane holder newly 101 on Christmas Day

LACONIA — Noella Walker Gagne Maheux was born on Christmas Day in 1924. Now, 101 years later, she's receiving the Centennial Cane, an honor bestowed upon the person believed to be the oldest, native-born Laconian.

Her second husband Antonio also received the cane in 2017, at the ripe old age of 103.

A large crowd gathered at her home on Friday, just one day after her birthday, to celebrate with cake, stories and laughter. Five of her seven children were there to honor her, too, when Pam Clark of the Laconia Museum & Historical Society and Ann Dearborn Kaligian, who started the Centennial Cane tradition in 1993, presented Noella with a plaque and the cane itself.

“This is very nice,” Noella said. “Thank you so much.”

The tradition began in Laconia in 1993, when Dearborn Kaligian and her husband Robert bestowed the Centennial Cane upon Madeline Whelan.

“It’s not given out often,” Clark said.

And it surely is not — including Noella, there have been only six Laconians who’ve received the honor: Whelan (1993); Doris Barnes (2012); Rachel Gilbert (2014); Antonio Maheux (2017); John Gauthier (2018); and Noella, on Friday.

“I love to keep up with tradition, tradition is very important to me,” Clark said. “I want to keep this going.” 

In October, a story ran in The Laconia Daily Sun informing readers Clark and her colleagues were searching for the next recipient of the cane. Noella’s niece, Priscilla Clark, read the story and suggested Noella could be the worthy recipient.

“I saw it in the paper, it was an article,” she said. “It means a lot to me, because both of my parents are gone."

Noella and her brothers Francis, Raymond and Herbie grew up on Pitman Court and, after finishing eighth grade at Sacred Heart, she matriculated into the class of 1943 at Laconia High School. While completing her studies, she worked at Woolworth’s in the stationary, candy and dish ware departments.

At age 18, she worked third shift as an operator for the phone company. She remembers vividly the switchboards lighting up when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt suddenly died in 1945, and again when the Second World War reached its conclusion.

“Work for your goals,” Noella said Friday. “Take care of your health.” 

Around that time, her friend Shirley Mclaire convinced Noella to take a ride on a two-seater airplane, an experience she does not wish to repeat.  

In 1946, Noella married Sylvio Gagne, the brother of her best friend Ophelia Gagne. They lived mostly on South Main Street, and had seven children: Alan, Paul, Gary, Mark, Sylvia, Jon and Sheila. While Sylvio worked, Noella took care of the home, where they rented out rooms. Her parents also lived with them in a small upstairs apartment at the time; Theodore and Jeanne Walker were from Canada.

But Sylvio died suddenly on April 14, 1970, and Noella had children to care for. She made it through that rough period with Sylvio’s Social Security funds and help from neighbors and relatives. A man who lived across the street and worked at Weeks Dairy, for example, would leave milk, butter and eggs on their porch.  

Several years later, according to a biographical timeline penned by family members, Noella hired Antonio “Tony” Maheux to wallpaper one of her bedrooms. They apparently hit it off, because they were married by May 1973.

“Tony always joked that he had to marry her, because she couldn’t pay the bill,” the document reads, in part.

At the time, Tony’s siblings told him he was crazy to marry a woman with seven children, but he told them the children would eventually leave. Before the family moved into Tony’s house, he needed to add a bathroom, a laundry room, and enlarge the kitchen.

Noella would assist Tony with his wallpapering jobs, but mostly remained at home. When Tony “remembered” to retire, he and Noella helped all their children finish the insides of their houses, making renovations or repairs. Noella used to pack up a lunch, and they were off to work.

When she reached her 70s, Noella and Tony took care of Sheila’s young daughters, Whitney and Sydney, until they reached preschool age. On the weekends, Noella and Tony took turns hosting dinners with Tony’s siblings on Saturday nights. On Sundays, they would drive north and find a nice spot for a picnic. Noella would call her kids on New Year's Eve at midnight, typically waking them, wishing them a “Happy New Year’s.”

If you speak with her kids today, they say Noella never stopped working. If an unexpected visitor arrived at their house, she’d cook up lunch in just minutes. Though Tony was in relatively good health until six months before he died, Noella took care of him and her house well into her 90s, and beyond.

Tony died on April 22, 2018, at age 104. From then on, Noella kept her home by herself, mostly. At age 95, she reluctantly gave up driving and, at age 98, her kids decided she needed more help. Sylvia, who is retired, visits with Noella every day. Mark, his wife Cindy, Sylvia and Sheila are her “grounds and house-cleaning team.”

Noella still lives independently with the help of her children, neighbors and other relatives, and is in good health, which her children credit to her doctors.

Though life has been tough, at times, Noella said Friday she made it through with a little help from her friends. After a lifetime of work, she now builds 500-piece puzzles, plays Rummy every day with Sylvia, and typically takes up Solitaire in the morning.

“Just work hard,” she said. “It’s easier now, because my children help me.”