Boston Post Cane
Presented To Mae Vater
Once again, the Historical Commission presented the Boston Post Cane, to Bellingham's eldest resident--Mary C. Vater (better known as Mae).
This tradition began 91 years ago, as an advertising promotion of the Boston Post. It recognized--"those who lived honored and useful lives, to thrift, temperance, and right living, and above all to the superb vigor of New England manhood and womanhood."
Commission Chairman, Ernest Taft, teased Mae a bit, when he learned from her sons, that their mother might be 98 instead of 95. Possibly she had 'fudged' her age a bit, so she wouldn't be older than her husband.
She was born March 18,1905 in Sydney Mines, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, one of 12 children. After coming to Bellingham, she and her husband, Walter, ran a garage on Mechanic Street. She was active in the Grange, No. 190, and was an accomplished pianist. She was also a member of the chorus of the Bellingham Blackouts stage show in the 1970's.
Bellingham Historical Commission honors all it's elder citizens, and was proud to remember Mae Vater with a replica of the original cane.
