BIOGRAPHY

Moles was born Mary Ellen Chase in Batteaux, Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada, on 15 July 1907. She was the youngest of five children born to parents Joseph Robinson Chase and Ida Rainey. Her parents moved to Simcoe County in 1898, when her father heard about a woolen mill that he could rent. Five years later, the gristmill was destroyed by fire, and as a result, the family shifted their focus to farming. After her brother Clarence moved out, the family moved to a smaller farm.

In 1927, she obtained her teaching degree at Toronto Normal School. She got her first job at a school in Tiverton, where she taught in a one-room schoolhouse covering Grades 1 to 8. However, her parents needed assistance back at home, so she returned to Clearview to teach. She moved schools during the Great Depression. While working at the Batteaux school, she met her future husband Ross Moles, whom she married in 1941. The couple moved in with her parents and after 16 years of teaching, she retired for the first time to raise their two daughters, Ellen and Lenore.

Following the death of her parents, the couple built a house in Clearview. In 1952, she resumed her teaching profession, spending another 16 years teaching at two different schools before retiring in 1968 at the age of 61.

Her husband passed away in 1980, after 39 years of marriage. She lived on her own until 1987, when she moved in with her daughter Ellen and son-in-law.

Moles passed away in Batteaux, Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada, on 7 March 2018, at the age of 110 years, 235 days. She was survived by her two daughters, four grandchildren and two great-grandsons.

RECOGNITION

Her age was validated by LongeviQuest on 10 September 2023.

ATTRIBUTION

* “Nottawa woman celebrates 109th birthday” – Simcoe.com, 27 August 2016

* “Mary Moles Obituary” – Legacy

GALLERY

Recommended