Leota Denico Seaward ’29

At nearly 97 years of age, Leota Denico Seaward has a lot of history to share. She was born on Oct. 6, 1910 with bright red hair and grew up at the corner of Lakeview Drive and Alderwood Park Road in South China. She and her sister, Evelee Denico Cook ’30, attended Lakeside Elementary School (in the Hanson neighborhood). She recalls that there were no indoor toilets at the school, and in the bad weather, their father would hitch up the oxen and drive them in a cart to their classes. Once at Erskine, however, during the winters they would stay in the dormitories. One particular winter, there was so much ice that they skated all the way down the hill. Those were the days when they would take the oxen with the sleds across the lake at Thanksgiving time.

She remembers the fire that burned the original Erskine building – on November 5, 1926. She was in school that afternoon when the principal came around to all the classrooms saying that there was a fire in the furnace room. He asked them to throw all the books out the window and then to leave the building. When they went back to school the next week, classes were held in the gymnasium and there were only chairs, no tables, and classes separated out to the corners of the gym to work.

Leota had originally been affiliated with the class of 1928, but in her junior year she had to leave school to have her appendix removed. She spent a full two months in the hospital and was not even expected to survive the ordeal. She did, though and graduated with the class of 1929 as the salutatorian.

Just out of school, Leota married Elmer Wilson Seaward and moved to Turner, Maine where they ran a large farm. During the Great Depression, the farm provided plenty of meat and vegetables and they often took in homeless men who were looking for food and work. Leota gave birth to four children at home, from 1930 to1940. She also worked for 20 years at the Priscilla Turner rug factory.

Today Leota still lives in Turner in a cozy apartment. Despite having undergone a quadruple bypass and angioplasty, she is incredibly vital and young looking, still drives her car for short trips to the store, and assists other seniors in her building who are 20 years her junior. She loves watching basketball on TV and as the oldest resident of Turner, has been honored with the Boston Post Cane. She may be Erskine’s oldest alum as well and credits hard work and healthy living for her longevity. Congratulations, Leota!

Above: Leota holding her 1929 copy of The Pinnacle.