SOUTH DEERFIELD — Friends and family members say Stella Connor, Franklin County’s oldest resident who died Sunday at the age of 110, connected with many as a pillar in her community during her long life, about half of which was spent as a South Deerfield resident.
Connor was born on June 19, 1915. She grew up farming in Whately with her parents Peter and Stasia (Banas) Korpiewski, who immigrated to the U.S. from Poland.
Although residents of the two towns knew her as Stella Connor, she was born with a Polish first name. According to her great-nephew Dean Lambert, when she introduced herself on her first day at school, the teacher, in an attempt to teach English, responded with, “Your name from now on is Stella.” When she returned home, she told her parents the news, and “Stella” stuck.
Lambert attributed Connor’s long life not to a special diet or routine, but to her attitude.
“She didn’t have a mean bone in her body,” Lambert said.
Despite living through World War I, World War II and the Great Depression, he said she retained that positive attitude. According to Lambert, during the Great Depression, Connor and her family struggled to support themselves financially, living in a tent. Lambert said she would describe these difficult times to him for about 30 seconds before moving on.
“She didn’t hold negativity,” Lambert said.
“She never complained,” Connor’s longtime friend Sharon Kieras said. “She had the kindest heart. She was so thoughtful — not just to me, but to everyone.”
Kieras visited Connor’s Thayer Street apartment several times a week. Kieras said Connor often warmed a pot of tea for the two of them and insisted she always take an extra cookie. When Kieras mowed Connor’s lawn, Connor would make her a root beer float.
“She was a beautiful person through and through,” Kieras said.
Besides cookies and root beer floats, Connor also baked zucchini bread, brownies, apple pie and chicken soup. Until she turned 109, Lambert said his great-aunt cooked a turkey and potato salad for the holidays.
When Connor swept her porch and spotted her neighbor Sharyn Paciorek, an almost daily ritual, Paciorek said her neighbor would yell, “Sharyn! I baked something today, you need to come over and eat!”
“She was the kind of neighbor that everybody would wish for,” Paciorek said.
Although Connor was first dubbed Deerfield’s oldest resident at 102, earning her the Boston Post golden cane, the recognition was commemorated again on her 110th birthday.
Paciorek, Kieras and Lambert each said age did not slow Connor down. She cleaned, baked, cooked and gardened at her own apartment until her last few years.
“Even at 110 years old, she was still pretty spunky,” Paciorek said.
The secret to her spunk?
“She wanted to live every day to the fullest,” Paciorek said.
Deacon Rodney Patten of the Holy Family Roman Catholic Church remembered reading obituaries with Connor. When she read ages around 85, Patten said she declared, “That’s young!” to which he replied, “Well Stella, everybody is young to you!”
Patten said Connor was always praying and could be found at the Holy Family Roman Catholic Church every Sunday. A part of the Rosary Confraternity, St. Anne’s Sodality and the choir, Patten said, Connor “basically did it all.”
When her hearing became too impaired to listen to the Mass, Connor took communion at her apartment, according to Patten. He described Connor as “the second grandmother” he never had.
Lambert and Connor’s daughter Marie Welch stressed that Connor’s dedication to faith extended beyond her involvement at the church to a deep “relationship with God.”
“She was a good example to me about how life should be lived,” Welch said.
Paciorek and Kieras recalled Connor’s many adventures with her best friend Bertha Markowski, who died in 2020. According to Kieras, the pair often dined and shopped at flea markets together.
Paciorek recalled Connor and Markowski taking the bus together to the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. A few hours later, Paciorek picked up the phone to hear Connor say, “We made $1,500 at Mohegan Sun and we’re throwing a birthday party for us, and we want you to come and you don’t have a choice!”
The Whately Diner was a favorite food spot for Connor, according to Kieras. There, instead of her favorite Polish foods like pierogies, Connor ordered her usual: a Philly cheesesteak.
During one trip with Connor to the Whately Diner, Kieras said a friend knocked on Connor’s apartment door to no answer and called the police seeking a welfare check. On the drive back to South Deerfield, Kieras said the police called her to learn Connor’s whereabouts. Later, when Kieras told Connor, she joked, “I can’t even go to the truck stop without the police coming after me!” Kieras recalled with a laugh.
Kieras, Paciorek, Lambert and Deerfield Selectboard Chair Trevor McDaniel agreed Connor touched many lives in the community. According to Lambert, Connor often sat on her porch to wave to her neighbors and to observe passersby.
For her 105th birthday, which came just three months into the pandemic, Lambert and other family members organized a community parade to honor Connor. As police cruisers, fire engines and ambulances decorated with balloons passed and friends and family drove by with signs, Connor waved and blew kisses from her porch.
“She was such an inspiration,” McDaniel said. “She loved her church and her community.”