Woman, 91, receives Boston Post Cane at Eddington picnic

EDDINGTON – Ida Sites, 91, was recognized as the oldest citizen of Eddington at its annual picnic on Aug. 27. Richard L. Bowden, president of the Eddington Historical Society, presented her with the Boston Post Cane and Russell Smith presented her with a plaque of recognition.

Sites was born May 16, 1915, in Bangor to Lina and Alexander Cunningham. She had six brothers and sisters – George, Irving, Frank, Louis, Evangeline Cunningham and Irene Estabrook.

Sites graduated from Bangor High School in 1933 and married George Bartlett of Orono on Nov. 16, 1933. He died in 1962. In 1981, she married Ralph Sites of Eddington at the North Brewer-Eddington Methodist Church. They celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on July 11.

Sites’ children and family members are George Bartlett and his wife, Patricia; Joan Ness and her husband, Richard; Robert Bartlett and his wife, Trudy; and step-daughter Linda LaChance and her husband, Steve. She has 12 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

Sites worked at the Viner Shoe factory, retiring at age 70 after 25 years of service. Today she enjoys golf, beading, sewing, cooking and traveling to Zephyrhills, Fla.

Sites leads an active life and for the past 20 years has attended aerobics classes twice each week. She is well-known for her homemade cookies, bread pudding and baked beans.

Sites has memories of shopping trips to downtown Bangor before malls were built, roller skating at the rink on Harlow Street that became the location of the Sears and Roebuck store, going to the four movie theaters in downtown Bangor – the Bijou, the Park, the Opera House and the Olympia Theater – riding on the trolley cars and traveling by train to her grandmother’s house in Princeton where she spent the summer.