Adelaide Davis, 101, is presented Tuesday with the Boston Post Cane as Rumford’s oldest citizen. With her at the Rumford Community Home are, from left, Selectmen Theresa Sax and Frank DiConzo, and Town Manager Stacy Carter. Bruce Farrin/Rumford Falls Times

RUMFORD — Adelaide Davis, who turned 101 on July 26, has been honored as the oldest resident of Rumford.

Town Manager Stacy Carter and Selectmen Theresa Sax and Frank DiConzo visited her Tuesday at the Rumford Community Home to present her with the Boston Post Cane and a framed certificate.

Her daughter, Betty Phillips, her son, Bill Davis, and his girlfriend, Sue Everett, attended the recognition.

Davis has five grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

She was born in the Woodrowville neighborhood, which is now Maple Street Extension. She said she worked in the town manager’s office for 20 years until 1987. She started in the assessor’s office and then the front office.

“They were good people to work with,” she said. “Once I stopped working, I started traveling.”

“That’s what I wanted to do in the first place, but I got married,” Davis said.

She’s been to Paris, France, England, Hawaii, New York, Arizona and California.

Asked is she had a secret for living to be 101, she said with a straight face, “Yeah, live alone.”

Her answer brought laughter to everyone in the room.

Her mother lived to be 104, and Davis agreed longevity is in the genes.

She has lived at the Rumford Community Home since 2019.

“I had a good life,” she said. “You do the best you can with what you have.”

Following the recognition, the cane was returned to Town Hall where it is displayed.