9031-R3_CC_Hollis_2023-2024_AnnualReport_Web

Town of Hollis 2023-2024

Boston Post Cane Award and Centurion Dedications

Presentation of the Boston Post Cane to recipient Denyse Parent along her daughter Marie C’es; by Mary Hoffman, Select Board Chair and Crystal Gaudet, Deputy Town Clerk

It gives the Select Board great pleasure to honor Denyse Parent as the newest member of the coveted Boston Post Cane award bestowed on her on May 13, 2025. As noted in last year’s Annual Report, Denyse was born in Paris in 1924 and was only 15 years old when World War II broke out. Her journey from Paris to a small town in Maine was interesting, eventful, and often challenging. When Germany invaded France, her father, a well-known clarinetist and member of the French Republican Guard Orchestra, moved his family to the unoccupied city of Chamalieres. Denyse stayed in occupied Paris with her grandparents so that she could attend school there. As much of France was under German Occupation, life was difficult. Denyse remembers being constantly hungry and riding her bike everywhere to find food. After the war, Denyse studied law and met her first husband, a wine merchant who took them to Morocco to live. After their divorce, she met her second husband, a First Lieutenant in the U. S. Army Infantry. When the king of Morocco returned to power, it became unsafe for French citizens to stay. Her husband Maurice, A Lewiston native, suggested moving to Maine to find a business to buy. In 1957, they purchased Clear Spring Fish Hatchery in Hollis, whose name they

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