COLRAIN — Years ago, Raigh M. Herzig shot an 8-point buck and was disappointed to find that her hunting prowess was attributed to a “Ralph” Herzig in a newspaper hunting column.
“It wasn’t just the misspelling but the idea that a man must have shot it that bothered her,” said her daughter, Judy Tatro. So one of Herzig’s grandsons called the newspaper and got a correction.
Raigh (pronounced Ra-ya) Herzig still has a snapshot of herself with that buck, taken some 40 years ago. She gave up hunting, she said, when she was in her 70s.
On Tuesday, Herzig will be 105 years old. And this week, the Selectboard gave her an early birthday gift: Colrain’s Oldest Citizen “Golden Cane” award.
Although no one knows where the town’s original 1891 Boston Post gold-headed Cane has gone, the Selectboard gave Herzig a proclamation that honors and celebrates her longevity. In addition, they put her name and birth date on a plaque that will hang in the Town Office to honor her and all the Oldest Citizen award-winners who may come later.
“Your name is the first one on the plaque,” Selectboard Chairman Mark Thibodeau told her.
Others who came to the award presentation included Selectwoman Eileen Sauvageau, Town Clerk Robin Hartnett, EMT/firefighter Colleen Worden, Judy Tatro and Herzig’s daughter-in-law, Carol Herzig.
Born in Colrain in 1912, the seventh girl out of a family of 14 children, Herzig has probably lived longer in town than any other resident, as well. She attended Griswoldville Elementary School until age 14, and then began working at the Griswoldville Manfacturing Co., in the weaving department, for the next 36 years.
She met her future husband, Herman Herzig Sr., when she was 15 years old, and they married in 1930. They enjoyed hunting and fishing together.
They had four children, and have seven grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren.
In her retirement years, Herzig took up quilting and has made a quilt for everyone in her family. Some of her quilts won prizes in local fairs. She also embroidered, and one of her quilts features hand-embroidered state flowers from all 50 states. Tatro said they researched the state flowers at the library. The quilt is all Herzig’s design.
Herzig still does her own housework, but has stopped sewing as her eyesight has grown poor. Her sewing machine still sits upright, with a dust cover on it, ready to use. “That’s one thing I miss — sewing,” she said.
Her daughter said she has a hard keeping up with her mother, walking in the grocery store. One clerk even asked if they were sisters. “It put a little spring into her step,” said Tatro.
A day before the award, Tatro asked if the board was going to give her mother a cane. “A cane is probably the last thing she would want,” she remarked.