Sister June Carpenter, the Oldest Shaker, Has Died

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Now there are only two practicing members of the last active Shaker community in the United States. Sister June was 88.

Sister June Carpenter in 2014. “I am the last and the least of the community,” she said, “and I’m very happy in that position.”Credit...Sean Alonzo Harris

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· 8:05 min

Nov. 13, 2026

Sister June Carpenter, a gentle librarian and one of three practicing members of the last active Shaker group in America, a Christian community of celibate pacifists, died on Nov. 3. She was 88.

Her death was announced by her community in a social media post that said she had been struggling with health and mobility issues, but did not provide further details.

At Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village in New Gloucester, Maine, there are 18 lovely brick and clapboard buildings bounded roadside by a white picket fence, set on a lake and 1,800 acres of farmland, woods and wetlands. But there aren’t legions of Shakers in residence.

At this point, there are only two: Brother Arnold Hadd, 70, and Sister April Baxter, who joined last year and is around 60.

Reports of the group’s extinction are a constant source of irritation to them. The oft-used newspaper headline, “The Last Shaker This or That,” particularly grates.

Most inquiries from the news media are politely declined because of reporters’ tendency to focus on the dwindling population. In one instance, media coverage may have exacerbated the situation. In 2006, after The Boston Globe published a story about the community headlined “The Last Man Standing,” one of its members, Brother Wayne Smith, fell in love with the reporter and left.

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