Virginia Carlisle MacLeod, born and raised in Boothbay Harbor, celebrated her 100th birthday with her family on Jan. 20, 2016.

Virginia was born in 1916 at 52 McKown Street in Boothbay Harbor, the daughter of Captain Louis A. and Mary Alice Wylie Carlisle of Boothbay Harbor. This very special birthday celebration took place in Carrollton, Georgia where Virginia now lives with her granddaughter, Mrs. Debra Brown Haisley and husband Doc Haisley. Virginia’s three children joined her for this milestone occasion along with other family members including three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Virginia enjoys sharing stories with her family of her life growing up in Boothbay Harbor with her beloved sister, the late Lucy Carlisle Garcelon when, as Virginia says, cars were “put up on blocks” in the winter and the only way out of town was by boat to Bath. She remembers sledding down the steep hill in front of her house at 145 Townsend Avenue; seeing Native American Indians’ tepees behind her house each summer when they came to Boothbay Harbor to pick sweet grass and weave baskets to sell; swimming in the harbor each summer; her favorite high school Latin teacher, Mrs. Kenniston; and the sports teams rivalry between Boothbay and Wiscasset.

With her father at sea, Virginia and her sister Lucy were raised by their grandmother, Mrs. Addie Carlisle of Boothbay Harbor, after their mother died when Virginia was 12 years old. Virginia attended high school in Boothbay Harbor, graduated from Oak Grove School in Vassalboro, and from Beaver College in Pennsylvania. Virginia married the late Ronald F. MacLeod of Augusta, Maine in 1939 and their three children, Ronald Jr. of Woodbridge, Virginia; Mary Alice Brown of Villa Rica, Georgia; and James of Kent, Connecticut, were all born in Maine. Virginia taught history at the DeVeaux School in Niagara Falls, New York and taught in the academic learning skills program at the Hun School in Princeton, New Jersey where her husband was assistant headmaster.

Virginia and her husband retired to Stuart, Florida in 1977 where they enjoyed spending time with family living in the Stuart area and Boothbay Harbor friends who also enjoy spending the winter and spring in sunny Florida and the summer and fall in Maine.

Virginia is very proud of and always looks forward to seeing her seven grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. The family spends time with Virginia each summer at the family’s summer house, purchased by her father in 1949, on Knickerbocker Lake in Boothbay. Although Virginia and her husband made their home in many different places throughout her lifetime, she still looks forward to coming home to Boothbay Harbor each summer where she loves taking a boat ride around the harbor and out to Squirrel Island, driving around the streets of Boothbay Harbor reminiscing about her childhood friends and family, and sharing wonderful stories of life in the harbor that few alive remember.

Virginia's late-in-life companionship with Boothbay Harbor native and classmate, the late Charlie Rowe is also among her Boothbay Harbor memories. Well into their nineties, they were frequently seen dancing together at Harbor restaurants throughout the summer and fall. 

A spry and beautiful 100 years old, Virginia enjoys reading biographies, seeing her great-grandchildren when they visit, and always appreciates a good dessert, especially Maine blueberry pie.