Newspaper Article 1978 – ‘Getting old’ – at 106

‘Getting old’ – at 106

Mrs Caroline Turner Williams, Havelock North – 106 today – says she is “getting old.”

Mrs Turner Williams still lives in her own home in Te Mata Rd with her daughter, Miss Margery Turner Williams.

Today she received cards from well-wishers and a cable from her cousin in England. Her younger sister, 98, also living in England, still writes her long and amusing letters.

A few friends will celebrate her birthday with her early this evening.

Miss Turner Williams said her mother was a “bit frail” but still gets up every day. For entertainment she reads and watches television.

“She has grown old graciously and is very sweet,”  Miss Turner Williams said.

“The other day she told a caller: ‘I’m getting very old, you know.’ ”

Mrs Turner Williams has lived in Havelock North since the early 1920s. She and her late husband, Arthur Edward Turner Williams, the youngest son of Bishop Leonard Turner Williams, Napier, emigrated to New Zealand in 1918.

After her husband’s death in 1930, Mrs Turner Williams went for a trip to Ceylon. On her return she bought a house in Ellison Rd, but in 1942 moved to her present home in Te Mata Rd. She names the house “Green Trees.”

In the 1920s Mrs Turner Williams helped Miss Jerome Spencer establish the Country Women’s Institute in Hawke’s Bay, and for many years was president of the Te Awapuni Maori Institute.

She has also been an active member of the Red Cross, and during the Second World War, held weekly parties in her home, where members made bandages and covered splints made by pupils at Hereworth School.

In the late 1940s she organised sewing circles to make garments for European children, and was also active in drama.

Photo caption – Mrs Letha Brown, California, International President of Altrusa, arrived today to present Mrs Turner Williams with birthday flowers.