By Leighah Beausoleil
Contributing Writer
WESTBOROUGH — The oldest resident in Westborough recently turned 104.
Bunny Perron, born Lena Smith on Nov. 17, 1921, grew up on her family’s Otis Street farm, where she was the youngest of eight children.
Though the family was not well-off and had its struggles – there were 10 people and only one bathroom, for instance – she said her family members were happy and had “a lot of fun.”
The farm was self-sustaining, growing corn, potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, and more, with a number of cows, pigs, ducks, goats, and a horse named Bill. Though she lived through the Great Depression, “we had plenty to eat because we had that farm,” she said.
They were located right next door to an airport, which is now the home of an Amazon facility.
“They used to have a little stand where they sold drinks and popcorn and that kind of stuff. I used to work there after school,” she said. She also babysat the owners’ son and witnessed a number of plane crashes.
Also nearby was Hocomonco Pond, where the kids spent their summers swimming and their winters skating.
She and her siblings would often walk to Saint Luke’s Church for Mass on Main Street. It was quite the walk, but Perron says her consistent walking in life has helped her stay fit and healthy – also crediting her love for tomatoes and blueberries.
“I used to walk, walk, walk – that’s the best thing you can do,” she said.
Perron recalls when Route 9 was nothing more than a dirt road and how it slowly transformed into the highway to Boston it is today. She also remembers the Hurricane of 1938, which was particularly devastating and took out a “huge tree” in their yard.
She graduated from Westborough High School in 1939, part of a class of 57 students, where she had been a drum major, a cheerleader, and also served as class vice president. Following graduation, she received a certificate from the Fannie Farmer cooking school in Boston.
“I didn’t have any famous ones,” she recalls of her home-cooked meals, but she enjoyed making her husband and children’s favorites, including meatloaves, chicken à la king, and pot roast.
Perron married her high school sweetheart, Fred Perron, in 1946 after he served in the army for three years during WWII. While he was away, she took care of her sick mother in Marlborough.
“It wasn’t an easy time, but he came through OK,” she said.
The couple had two daughters, who are now known as Kathy Sarnelli and Patti Conroy.
“I hope I was a good mother – that’s all,” she said. “I tried to bring them up knowing they were special to me – special to their father.”
She said marrying Fred and starting their family was the best thing that ever happened to her, noting him to be kind, considerate, and hardworking. He passed away in 2002.
His “pride and joy” was the five-and-dime store they opened up in Westborough in the late 1950s, which was known as The Circle. Perron said it was the kind of convenience store where “if we didn’t have it, you didn’t need it.”
Between their small graduating classes and the store, the Perrons knew everybody in town.
Sarnelli noted her mother also tended to make friends wherever she went as she is very much a people and family-oriented person.
“I’m proud of her. I hope to do as well as she had in maintaining my independence, which is very important,” she said, noting her mother takes less medicine than her.
“They were wonderful parents,” Sarnelli said, fondly remembering their trips to the beach and down to Florida. “They were really a pair.”
Perron has spent her days doing what she loves, including gardening, embroidery, reading, and keeping her house.
Since her days on the Otis Street farm, Perron said she’s seen Westborough “grow and grow.” Her favorite spot in town to visit is the reservoir, where she likes to sit on a bench and be with nature.
After 104 years on Earth, Perron said her advice to people is that they need to be kind, help one another, and not be prejudiced.
“There’s too much prejudice in the world,” she said. “There’s good, there’s bad, and you have to take people for what they are.”
Perron was surprised with a birthday celebration at the Westborough Senior Center on Monday, Nov. 17. As the oldest resident in Westborough, she was awarded a Boston Post Cane pin by Town Clerk Deborah Gage Ledoux.
The awarding of the Boston Post Cane is a tradition started by the Boston Post Newspaper in 1909 with a directive that it be presented to the oldest citizen in a town. The original Westborough cane, after it went missing for decades, was found in the 1990s and encased by Kris Allen, town historian and member of the Select Board at the time. It now hangs in Town Hall.
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