One of the oldest citizens of this country Sarah Marsters, who passed away over the weekend, had been remembered as a stalwart who never tolerated injustices.

She passed away on the island of Palmerston, surrounded by family on Sunday.

She was 97.

Speaker of Parliament Tai Tura in Parliament on Monday described her as a “stalwart” of Palmerston.

“Our greetings and acknowledgement of one of their stalwarts, we extend our condolences,” Tura told Parliament.  

Her son Arthur Neale, speaking from Palmerston, said his mother never tolerated injustices, and had a strong sense of what was fair and right.

She placed priority on cultural matters, human relationships and values, he said.    

Sarah Tupou Tina Marsters would sometimes joke about being the queen of the island she lived on.

Born on April 21, 1924, she shared her birthday with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and toured Buckingham Palace during a trip to London in 2007. 

As his great-grandchild, she was the oldest living descendant of William Marsters – the founding father of the unique community of Palmerston.

Neale, who spoke to Cook Islands News on his Mother’s 96th birthday in 2020, said he returned to Palmerston in 2012 to look after her as she suffered from Alzheimer’s and dementia in her later years.

She had four sons, two daughters, numerous feeding children, 18 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, he said.

“She was considered a master weaver for hats and crafts and she was a talented seamstress.

“She was also a fantastic cook of traditional Cook Islands dishes.” 

Neale said his mother was a faithful member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

“She had numerous leadership positions.

“She was loved by her extended family across the Cook Islands.”

She would befriend and always help people, he added.

“She was very charitable.” 

Daughter Stella Neale, in a memoir wrote that her mother had learned to read at her grandmother’s knee before she had actually started school.

Her reading lessons was reading the Bible with her grandmother Elizabeth, the daughter of William Marsters.

Sarah’s love of reading had been the teacher and trainer in her life when she was forced to finish school at 14 because of a decision that the family head of Palmerston had made, requiring that children older than 14 would need to stay home and help with chores and making copra.

This broke her heart, she once told Stella.

Sarah then wanted to be a nurse and trained (secretly) in 1947 however her father disagreed and intervened and she was not able to complete the examination.

She eventually left for Rarotonga, where she met Tom Neale, a notable New Zealand bushcraft and survival enthusiast. The year was 1942 and she was 18.

It was an innocuous start to becoming acquainted and not the beginning of a romance by any means.

When they eventually became a couple it was 1955, he had been working on various islands in the Cook Islands and had spent three years living alone on Suwarrow Island.

He was Stella and Arthur’s father.

Sarah was married three times – her last marriage was to Carl Teraia Marsters, who passed away in 2000.

Sarah retired back to Palmerston in 1996, was multilingual – fluent in English, Cook Islands Maori including Manihikiian, and Tahitiian, and learned French in her 50s.