CUMMINGTON — The town will need another bearer of its Post Cane with the passing of Jane Emerson, the current holder of the town’s ceremonial staff.
“She really was a sweetheart,” said longtime neighbor Peg Daniels. “She had a really dry sense of humor.”
Emerson died on March 9 and the Council On Aging has begun the process of finding the cane’s next recipient.
“We’re just still at the very beginning of it,” said Chrisoula Roumeliotis, coordinator for the COA.
The Boston Post Cane was created as a promotion by the now defunct Boston Post newspaper in 1909. The canes were distributed to communities throughout New England, with the idea that they be awarded to their oldest living male resident. Later on, women would become eligible for the honor.
Although most of the original Post Canes have been lost, including Cummington’s, the town like many others in Massachusetts, continues the tradition of awarding the cane.
Emerson, 95, lived most of her life in West Cummington. Indeed, her son Steve Emerson said she lived in the same house from when she moved in to take care of her grandfather after graduating from high school to when she moved into Mt. Greylock Extended Care around a year ago.
Emerson worked for 20 years in the town’s post office before retiring in 1990.
“She got along good with everybody,” her son said. “You kind of have to in that kind of a job.”
He also recalled how his mother would help out with the Christmas parties and church suppers that were held at the Parish House of the West Cummington Congregational Church.
“They just packed the place,” he said of the suppers.
In addition to Steve, Emerson is survived by daughter Marcia Emerson and son Dann Emerson, as well as five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
She was married to Alvah Emerson from 1946 until his death in 2006.
Emerson’s father, Robert Burnett, was the town postmaster and founded Cummington Supply, selling it to the Perkins family in the early 1970s.
Daniels said that she would visit with Emerson, and although Emerson had some difficulty hearing and seeing, Emerson always knew what was going on around town.
“She knew all the dirt and all the news,” Daniels said. “She would be up on all the latest.”
She also noted how her neighbor always had a garden, and that Emerson appreciated when Daniels’ children would bring flowers to her house on May Day, something they’d do for other elderly people as well.
Emerson was awarded the Post Cane in 2018 when she was 93 years old. However, Steve Emerson said it took some convincing to get her to go down to the Community House to receive the award.
“We really had to coax her to get down,” he said. “She just didn’t want to be bothered.”
However, he said his mother had a good time at the ceremony, held before the annual Town Meeting, where she received a plaque and a small replica cane.