Persons of the Year 2018 Booklet FINAL

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By Bridget Turcotte
ITEM STAFF
ITEM PHOTO | OWEN O’ROURKE
here’s a bug people catch when
they fall in love with Nahant, according
to Calantha Sears.
“Nahantitis — if you get it, you have
it forever,” she said.
The bug was easy for Sears to catch.
She has spent all of her 97 years living
in and loving the commonwealth’s tiniest
town.
“What I like to see is the new people
come across the beach and love Nahant
as much as I do and stay and enhance
it,” said Sears in an interview at
her home on Tuesday.
Sears was born on Oct. 17, 1921 in
the Hyland Road home her parents
built in 1916. She is a third generation
Nahanter. Her grandfather, Albert
Wilson, was a foreman who built many
of the summer retreats and smaller
houses in town.
She moved to her grandparents
home at 42 Ocean Street with her
parents in her early 20s. Her parents
moved back to the Hyland Road home
and, after the war, she and her husband,
Winthrop Sears, purchased the
Ocean Street house.
She and her husband, a U.S. Navy
veteran whom she met at Fisherman’s
Beach, raised their four daughters,
Melinda Hatfield Kershaw, Lucy Jane
Pomeroy, Elizabeth Comeau, and Cynthia
Oxton, in the family home.
Her four children gave her seven
grandchildren and 11 great grandchildren.
Number 12 on its way. Of all her
accomplishments, her family, she said,
has been her greatest.
The Daily Item named Sears its Nahant
Woman of the Year in 1967. She
was named a local history hero by Bay
State Historical League in 1954. She
has been on three town report covers.
The gazebo at Bailey’s Hill was named
Sears Pavillion in her honor when
it was re-dedicated by The Nahant
Women’s Club, of which Sears was the
president, at the town’s 150th year celebration.
She also served as the Grand
Marshal of the town’s parade and rode
in a horse-drawn carriage.
Sears was also on the committee for
the town’s 100th year celebrations.
When her children were growing up,
she found time to volunteer with Girl
Scouts and Rainbow Girls, a masonic
group. She spent time with the Nahant
Garden Club and the Women’s Rotary
Club of Lynn.
Sears worked as a children’s librarian
at the Nahant Public Library for 17
years. At the time, there was no library
at the elementary school, so she would
pick 25 books for each classroom and
deliver them to the children herself.
This is where her love for spending
time with children grew, she said.
To this day, she volunteers to read to
students on Dr. Seuss day at the Johnson
Elementary School and to give presentations
and lessons on the town’s
history.
Sears was the president of the Nahant
Historical Society when it was
started in 1975 at the Whitney Homestead.
The library had become a depository
for historical pieces, and her role
in as a librarian gave her great access
to the items.
She later became curator, which she
greatly enjoyed.
“I love finding things and learning
NAHANT
Calantha Sears
how they come together,” she said. “You
can find a new historic fact. People are
so generous with what they give.”
Most recently, in 2016, a Buddha
from the Lowlands Estate was donated
to the society and restored. The floors
were reinforced to accommodate the
statue’s 1,100-pound weight.
In the late 19th or early 20th century,
the Buddha, whose original artist is
unknown, served as a symbolic guardian
and protector of the children at the
estate of George Abbot James located
in what’s now East Point.
It became a symbol on a metal that
is awarded to one elementary school
student a year for success in mental
arithmetic, said Sears.
“Some of the summer people had Nahantitis
as bad as anyone,” she said.
On most days, you can run into
Sears at the Historical Society on Valley
Road. She will proudly provide a
tour of museum’s collection, complete
with personal commentary about how
the important players are related and
what they accomplished. If you’re
lucky, you might hear about her memories
of Nahant as a military town
and its transition from a summer vacation
spot to a home to 3,500 people.
She describes learning about Nahant’s
history as a child learning about fairy
tales in her own town. That’s how she
intends to pass them on.
After all she’s done in her 97 years,
Sears said she’s more impressed by the
work being done by new generations
of people who come into town and contract
Nahantitis. She humbly suggested
the honor instead be bestowed upon
them.