DOVER-FOXCROFT – Pearl Hamlin, who at 108 was believed to be Maine’s oldest resident, died Sunday at a Dover-Foxcroft nursing home.

Born Feb. 14, 1897, in Willimantic, Hamlin would have turned 109 on Valentine’s Day. Her funeral will be held at 11 a.m. today at the United Baptist Church in Milo, where she was a founding member.

“She was really a unique person; she was wired differently than the rest of us,” Neil Hamlin of Milo, her grandson, said Monday. “She took life as it came and didn’t worry about things.”

Pearl Hamlin was 17 at the start of World War I, and she lasted longer than most of those veterans.

“I’ve outlived a lot of them, I tell you,” she said during a 2004 interview.

Hamlin also outlived her husband, Oscar Hamlin; their son, George Hamlin, who died in 1975 from complications of diabetes; and most of her longtime friends. Yet she never became depressed or lonely, according to family members.

Nor was she ever without new friends, who provided her with support when she needed it.

Very active until she moved in July 2004 from Milo to Pleasant Meadows Estates, an assisted-living center in Dover-Foxcroft, Hamlin stayed at home in the early years to raise her children. She became a skilled seamstress who was often requested to make draperies, slipcovers and garments. She also substituted in public schools and taught Sunday school classes.

During an interview in February 2004 in advance of her 107th birthday, Hamlin remarked, “It’s just another birthday, and goodness knows, I’ve had enough of them.”

Her secret to longevity was her even nature, she said.

“I try to be decent,” Hamlin said. “Don’t get cross at every little thing, and accept people for who they are.”

Hamlin is survived by her sons Carl Hamlin and Robert Hamlin, both of the Milo-Brownville area.