"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. Yet the public is welcome; one never knows who might be a prospective convert."

From "Sister June Carpenter, the Oldest Shaker, Has Died/Now there are only two practicing members of the last active Shaker community in the United States. Sister June was 88" (NYT).

"... source of irritation... particularly grates..." — that makes them sound like irascible people.

I went to the link for the story supposedly headlined "The Last Man Standing," and I'm seeing the headline "The Last Ones Standing/Only four Shakers are left in the world, all living in southern Maine. But if they can't attract converts to their celibate lifestyle and this really is the end for them, they have a plan to ensure that their legacy lives on forever." Let's see what it says about Brother Wayne Smith:

The 6-foot 3-inch Smith, tanned and muscular from hours on a John Deere tractor, has the look of a strapping farmboy, a sardonic sense of humor, and a need for more than a simply Sunday-go-to-meeting faith. Raised as a Baptist, he says he was drawn to Shaker life by the way he saw it being lived out. "The religious life was a part of our day all the time, as opposed to something that was encapsulated on Sunday morning," he says. "Your religion wasn't something you were proclaiming but, rather, it was something that you were living." Smith's family, though, initially had trouble with his decision. "My mother used to say for years, when I first came here, 'Well, don't you think you're going to go to college someday? Or get married?'" he says. "After all these years, I think she'd be surprised now if I left."

Tanned, muscular, strapping... I'll bet "mother" was not surprised.

But back to Sister June Carpenter. From the new obituary:

When Ms. Carpenter first visited the village in the summer of 1988, she was 49; a friend took her to the dedication of its new library. In college, she had been drawn to stories of people who had religious vocations, and she felt that she, too, wanted to give her life to God. When she learned that the community needed help cataloging its archive for the new library, she volunteered to help, and felt so at home that she asked to be considered for membership....

As Sister June told [the author of a book about Shakers], “I am the last and the least of the community at the moment, and I’m very happy in that position. If I get into a position where I’m head of something, like when I was head cataloger at the library where I used to work, I feel uncomfortable and insecure. But I can cope with being little and low. It helps with the humility that we are striving for.”

When she was young, she had a spiritual experience. Looking at a crowd of people — in Boston — "I could see that God was within each of them. I’ve always remembered that — that God must be inside everyone in some way, whether they realize it or not.”