NORTON - The last time Leo Yelle saw his pastor at St. Mary's Church, they talked about plans for a new church building.

"'Am I going to be around to see it?'" the Rev. Marc Tremblay recalled Yelle asking him.

"I kind of looked at him and said, 'That's hope. That's really hope at 101," Tremblay said Tuesday.

Tuesday, Yelle's family and friends gathered at St. Mary's on South Worcester Street in the Chartley section of town to remember him during a Mass of Christian Burial. Yelle was a communicant and former lector at the church.

Yelle died Friday at the Mansfield home of his daughter, Shirley Macphee. He was 101. Yelle had been Norton's oldest resident since September 2001.

But he was a role model for his family and his community his entire life.

"Dad was always there to guide us and teach us. We learned so much from Dad," his son Courtney said.

Among Yelle's community roles was as a charter member of the conservation commission. "He was doing conservation for many years before it became fashionable," Courtney said.

Yelle's love of nature extended to his home, where his family had a victory garden where "we grew all kinds of vegetables," and an asparagus garden, Courtney said.

"Dad showed us how to clean it up and how to harvest the asparagus at the right time so it would grow to seed," he said.

A plumber by trade, Yelle once did plumbing for someone who kept pigs, "and guess who came home with a piglet as part of his pay?" Courtney recalled.

The family built a pen, and the pig "became a good pet for all the sisters and brothers," he said.

The world in which Yelle entered on May 10, 1906, was far different from today, his grandson Bill said in a letter that Yelle's granddaughter Jane Andrews read during the service.

During the early 20th century, "electric lighting was still fairly new," for example. "Grandpa saw the Berlin Wall go up and then torn down," Bill wrote.

"There were inventions and national events too numerous to mention. My grandfather was there to see them all."

Tremblay said Norton was "mostly a simple little town, with people like his family" when Yelle was younger.

"He was always a part of this community," Tremblay said.

The church service followed a funeral at Norton Memorial Funeral Home.

In lieu of flowers, Yelle's family requested that donations in his memory be made to the St. Mary's Church Building Fund, P.O. Box 430, Norton, MA 02766.

MICHAEL GELBWASSER covers Norton for The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0439 or at mgelbwasser@thesunchronicle.com.