Frankie Reynolds

Niantic — Frankie May Faulkner Reynolds, 98, of Niantic, and in recent years, Stockton Springs, Maine, born May 17, 1920, in Flanders, daughter of Clarence Henry Faulkner and Lottie Dora Mather Faulkner, died in peace May 24, 2018. She was the youngest daughter with two sisters and four brothers.

Frankie, named for her grandmother, graduated from New London Chapman Technical High School in 1938. April 6, 1940, she and John Edward Reynolds married. They shared a life of caring through The Niantic Baptist Church where she was a church school teacher and choir soloist. She helped form the Baptist Evening League for women and The Hilltoppers fellowship group. In the community, she was a member of Philip P. Gates Rebekah Lodge No. 19 and Osprey Rebekah Lodge No. 20, fulfilling leadership roles such as Past Noble Grand. She was a member and volunteer in the New London County Association for Retarded Citizens. With her daughter Pat, she helped establish a faithbased camping experience for mentally challenged adults with the Connecticut American Baptist Camp Wightman in North Stonington. She mentored many, as parents of special needs children, as lay teachers and in personal lives.

With John, she enjoyed camping, canoeing, swimming and hiking. She was a freelance writer for the Northeast Outdoor Camping Magazine and took great pleasure in writing stories and poetry. She was an active writer to legislators, especially advocating for those with handicaps. Later retirement in Maine, opened new friendships through the Belfast United Methodist Church and at Tall Pines in Belfast.

Although her siblings and husband are deceased, she is survived by two children, two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren: daughters Melissa Reynolds of Lebanon, and Priscilla “Pat” and husband Robert Burt of Stockton Springs, their daughter Karen and husband Richard of Boynton Beach, Fla., and their daughter Margaret “Maggie,” and Pat and Bob's son Jeffrey and wife Jacqueline of East Northport, Long Island, N.Y., and their children Landon and Noelle.

Celebration of Life services will be held at the Belfast United Methodist Church and at the Niantic Baptist Church at times to be announced.