Katharine Duclos Is
‘Keeping Busy’ at 100
By Sandy Cooch

Katherine DuClos of Braintree turned 100 last week. (Herald / Tim Calabro)

At 100, Braintree’s Katharine Flint DuClos has still got her wits well about her.

She also has her sight, hearing, manual dexterity, and mobility—enough to read, knit, chat with visitors, take a daily walk, do her own marketing, and make her own muffins.

"I live alone; I’m independent. I take care of myself," commented Mrs. DuClos last Friday afternoon in her tiny home on DuClos Road.

It was her 100th birthday, and Katharine DuClos was celebrating it in a quiet way not too far from where she was born, on a dairy farm on Bent Hill Road.

A grand birthday celebration occurred three days later, at a Sunday open house at the Braintree Town Hall. More than 150 well-wishers stopped by to visit with DuClos, both a retired teacher and notable local historian.

For last Friday’s interview, Katharine DuClos carefully set aside her glasses and a current project—a crocheted "Mohawk" afghan of her own design—to talk a little about her 100 years in Braintree.

Katharine Claudia Flint was one of four children born to Perkins and Helene Flint. As a child growing up on a Braintree dairy farm in the early 1900s, Katharine learned early on how to do and to make do. It was already a family tradition, Mrs. DuClos said.

Her parents had learned "good, old-fashioned things like making soap" from the fat of butchered pigs from her father’s parents, who were "kind of like pioneers."

Katharine Flint learned how to ride horses, collect sap, drive an ox team, sew, cook, and much more.

She also credits her upbringing with sparking her lifelong interest in history.

DuClos, the author of "History of Braintree, Volume II, 1883-1975," said she learned a lot of local history from her parents. Her mother’s scrapbook of clippings from "The Herald and News," she added, was an important source for her book.

18-Year-Old Teacher

After graduating from the Flint District School and from Randolph High School, young Katharine Flint took a one-year teacher training course in Randolph, and, at 18, began what turned out to be a 31-year career in teaching.

Her first assignment was in the Burridge School in Rochester Hollow, and it was there that she met a nice young man who was "drawing wood" by the school.

Eugene DuClos "had a little old Dodge roadster and we’d go out on picnics," Mrs DuClos recalled. Later, they married, and settled on what is now called DuClos Road, where they ran a small dairy farm.

Through a succession of teaching assignments and the birth of seven children, Mrs. DuClos continued the practical skills of her childhood, such as sewing—"I always made my own children’s clothes"—cooking, and making soap.

And, she made sure her kids learned to do the same.

"My children could knit, crochet, cook, they could sew," she said, adding, "Verne’s a good cook—I taught him."

Mrs. DuClos is now the happy beneficiary of that skill, as her son, who lives next door, brings dinner over each night.

Love of Local History

Her love of history remained woven into her life. She taught Vermont history to a succession of schoolchildren, and was a mainstay of the Braintree Historical Society for decades, serving as either the group’s president or vice-president from 1965 until 2003.

In the 1970s, she researched and wrote her 246-page history of Braintree, which has been republished twice since first printed in 1976.

The book, which is fully indexed and illustrated with numerous photographs, focuses on the stories of families, DuClos says

Even after retiring from teaching, she continued to pass on local history lore to new generations of schoolchildren, as Braintree teachers would tap her for special events.

"I used to go on trips with the children every year over Braintree Hill," she said, "and told them all the interesting things that happened along the way."

Things in her life are only somewhat quieter, these days.

Keeping Busy

Katharine DuClos uses a walker to take her mile-long walk outdoors most days. If the weather’s bad, she uses her treadmill. She also keeps a pair of two-pound hand weights handy to do arm exercises "whenever I feel like."

She doesn’t turn out the piles of quilts she used to, but she loves to work on "all kinds of craft work."

She still reads The Herald—"You bet I do"—and watches TV news and a few quiz shows, though she finds the world distressingly troubled, these days.

"It’s because people don’t respect each other anymore," she observed.

Katharine DuClos doesn’t have a secret recipe for longevity, unless, she jokes, it’s her long history of eating "fried salt pork and milk gravy."

More seriously, she concedes that "good clean living—I never smoked, never took alcohol," probably helped.

"Keeping busy; living one day to the next," keeps her going, DuClos said. "I live sort of an old-fashioned life."

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