LISBON

The cane will be displayed at the Town Office but it’s the shiny plaque bearing her name she gets to keep.

“Lisbon’s oldest citizen.”

Longtime resident Mary Stella Rosen Carville, 99, was recognized Monday as Lisbon’s oldest resident with the presentation of a Boston Post Cane. 

Carville has lived in Lisbon for more than 86 years. She was born in Fall River, Mass., on Jan. 7, 1914, to parents Rose and Albert Rodzen, and had an older sister who was born in 1911.

Carville’s parents were immigrants from Poland who met in Fall River and were married in 1910. Her mother worked in a handkerchief factory and her father tended looms at various locations. The couple wanted to bring their daughters up in a more rural setting though and moved to Rumford.

Carville said she started school at age 4 so both parents could work in the mill. The family only spoke Polish, but both daughters learned English in school and taught their parents. 

Their father changed their last name from Rodzen to Rosen to “Americanize” it.

The family lived out of state, moving to Lisbon in between ventures but were able to return for good in 1927,  purchasing a farm on Ridge Road. For the next 86 years, Lisbon has been home for Carville.

One of Carville’s daughters said her mother lied about her age to start working in a local shoe factory at age 15, and she worked there 12 years. 

She married her husband, Lester Carville, in 1935 and the couple had six children — three girls and three boys. 

Carville’s husband worked long hours at the shipyard in Portland and she started taking in sewing for extra income. She also made clothing for her children.

In 1943, Carville and her family purchased and moved into the farm on Webber Road, which became the Carville Farm and is where she still lives today with family.

“I’ve been to every state, but I always come back to Lisbon,” Carville said.

“It was nice,” Carville said after she was presented the Boston Post Cane and a plaque she can hang on her walls. She was also thrilled with the flower bouquet, saying, “I love flowers.” 

Monday, she also thought of her parents and said, “If they were alive now, they’d be so proud, they really would, and to think that their daughter is where she is. My father is especially famous for that!”

Carville has 12 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren. She knits and crochets and, in her spare time, she makes afghans.

As two rooms full of stacks of the decorative blankets attest, she can make afghans quickly enough to complete one in two or three days. 

dmoore@timesrecord.com