Sister June Carpenter, Oldest Shaker, Dies at 88, Leaving 2 Members at Last U.S. Community
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Nov 13
Sister June Carpenter, Oldest Shaker, Dies at 88, Leaving 2 Members at Last U.S. Community
3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Nov 13
Summary
Nov. 3 marked the death of Sister June Carpenter, 88, a librarian and one of three practicing members of the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in Maine.
The community said Carpenter had been struggling with health and mobility issues; her death leaves Brother Arnold Hadd, 70, and Sister April Baxter, who joined last year, as its only remaining members.
Sabbathday Lake, founded in 1783, is the last active Shaker community in the United States, preserving a celibate, pacifist Christian tradition that once counted about 5,000 members across 15 U.S. orders.
Carpenter joined after first visiting in 1988 to help catalog the village library and archives, later tending gardens and assisting in the kitchen while becoming a quiet symbol of the community’s persistence.