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Obituary, page b4 BY TED NESI SUN CHRONICLE STAFF

NORTON - Leo Yelle, a town legend known for his vigorous advocacy of conservation who in recent years was often called "Norton's Mayor," died on Friday at his daughter's home in Mansfield. He was 101.

At the time of his death, Yelle had been Norton's oldest resident since September 2001, when he was presented with the town's Boston Post Cane, traditionally given to the oldest person in a community. Longevity runs in the family; Yelle inherited the Boston Post Cane from his sister.

In 2005, Janice Burkhart, the vice president of the Norton Historical Society, organized a retrospective on Yelle's long life, and on Saturday she said that Yelle will be remembered for his good humor, his devotion to Norton, and his work in conserving town land. Yelle was a founding member of the Norton Conservation Commission in 1964, and served on it for three decades.

"Leo will be missed greatly, for sure," Burkhart said. "He just touched so many lives." Leo G. Yelle was born in Norton on May 10, 1906, a decade after the Yelle family first arrived in Norton. He was one of 13 children born to Wilfrid and Eveline Yelle, and the group went on to make the Yelle family name a ubiquitous part of Norton life in the 20th century.

"The Yelle family was a remarkable family," Burkhart said. "Those children all did wonderful things. ... They were all just extremely industrious."

Yelle grew up in a 10-room house that was across the street from Haskin's Pharmacy on West Main Street. Educated in the Norton school system, Yelle graduated in 1923 from Norton High School.

A plumber by trade, Yelle was best known for his decades of service in town government, not only on the conservation commission but also on the finance committee and at town meetings. He and his wife Ruth, who died in 1989, were familiar figures in town.

Indeed, town government was a constant in Yelle's long life. Decades later, he recalled one of the first town meetings he attended as a young boy, when a man named Mr. Reynolds was arrested at town hall and taken to jail - but he had to be taken to Attleboro, because Norton didn't have a jail.

In the 1960s, Yelle helped secure federal funds to buy the 23-acre Rose Farm Conservation Area off North Worcester Street and behind the Solmonese Elementary School. It was one of his proudest accomplishments.

"It's a war trying to protect the land," he said in 1993. He was saddened by the shrinking of Norton's agricultural land. "Some call that progress," he said. "I call that regression."

In 1994, a year after he retired from the conservation commission, Yelle was one of three Norton residents recognized for their decades of service to the town.

"I could never tell you, if I stood here all night, what these people have done for the town of Norton and the people of Norton," the then-chairman of the board of selectmen, Clarence "Butch" Rich Jr., said that night.

In October 1999, Yelle was named the town's "mayor for the millennium," and the honor took him completely by surprise. After living in Norton for nearly a century, Yelle said he knew nearly everyone in town. And, he added, "Those that I don't know, I look forward to meeting."