Johnston retires after 24 years of service

Contributed photo
THANKS FOR 24 YEARS — Bob Bartlett, right, chairman of the Littleton Board of Selectmen, presents a plaque to Rae Johnston for her 24 years of service to the town. Johnston retired from the board in March.
By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    LITTLETON — It is the end of yet another era for the town of Littleton. After 24 years, Rae Johnston has stepped down from the town’s board of selectman at the end of her term. Her final duties as selectman were Monday during the town’s annual meeting.
    Johnston joins Jerry Miller, Ray Wotton, Ken Eleiott and Arnold Bartlett as selectman who retired from service at the 24-year mark.
    The town surprised Johnston with a plaque during a special dinner for her at the Horn of Plenty restaurant last week.
    “It was time,” Johnston said. “None of the boys ever went beyond 24 years of service, so I didn’t want to go beyond what they did.”
    Johnston, 79, was the first woman elected to the town’s Board of Selectmen.
    Moving from Rhode Island as a teenager, Johnston graduated from Houlton High School. She worked at the Houlton Town Office for three years and then married her husband, Charlie, who has since passed. The couple left the area for a short time, due to Charlie’s service in the military. When they returned, the couple raised six children — Mark, Susan, Ann, Steven, Karen and David — in the Littleton area.
    “When I got out of high school, I worked for the town of Houlton for three years and loved it,” she said. “When we came back, I helped Anna Schools here in the town office occasionally and enjoyed it. Charlie was a selectman for nine years, but his job with the railroad took him away too much so he had to get done (with the board).”
    Once her husband was off the town board, Rae decided the time was right for her to serve the community.
    “And I wanted to be the first woman on the board,” she said. “I’m hoping some others will follow in those footsteps.”
    “Rae has been an awesome role model for me,” Town Manager Courtney Toby said. “I can remember when I was 13 years old and started working on the harvester with my mother. Rae worked on that same harvester and that was when I fell right in love with her. She is just an awesome person and I am really going to miss her.”
    Toby added that Johnston has been a tremendous asset to both herself and the town as a whole during her time on the Board of Selectmen.
    “She leaves a big hole on the board,” Toby said. “It was really nice having a female on the board. I’m sure she was a mother figure for the others, as she was for me.”
    In 2011, Johnson won the Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce’s “Community Spirit Award” for her tireless dedication to service groups in the area.
    Johnston is a moving force behind the activities of the Meduxnekeag Ramblers Snowsled Club in Littleton, as she organizes successful breakfasts, which help pay many clubhouse expenses, and helps with fundraising for the club and is the membership chairman. When anyone in the community is in need of assistance, she is one of the first to offer to help with organizing a supper or whatever fundraiser is decided upon.
    She also is one of the organizers during Moosestompers Weekend and works closely with the Houlton Chamber of Commerce on the event. She is on the board of directors for the Southern Aroostook Agricultural Museum and helps organize and work fund-raising events there, as well.
    She has also represented Littleton as a member of the Board of Trustees for Houlton Regional Hospital and the Houlton/Hodgdon Dollars for Scholars boards.
    In past years, she served as a member of the Littleton School PTA and helped with the PTA Fair, which helped with extras needed at the school, and many children have benefited from mittens she has knitted and sent to school. Johnston is active in her church, as she serves on the Littleton United Baptist Church Benevolent Committee and has been on the social committee.
    Staff Writer Gloria Austin contributed to this article.