Winifred Gray Read

1925 - 2020

READ, WINIFRED GRAY
November 9, 1925 - October 10, 2020
Winifred Gray Read, age 94, died on Saturday, October 10, 2020 in Roswell, Georgia. Born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, she lived in Riverside, RI, Barrington, RI, and Venice, FL, before moving to Roswell to be near family. She was the beloved wife of the late Major General Harold N. Read for 61 years until his death in 2007. She was the daughter of the late James H. Gray and Sarah E. (Collinson) Gray.
Mrs. Read was a graduate of Pawtucket East High School and Comptometer School in Providence. She retired in 1988 from Hallworth House Extended Care Facility, Providence, after 20 years as its first Office Manager and Executive Assistant. Mrs. Read was inducted into the Order of St. Barbara, a military honor society of the U S. Army Field Artillery and U. S. Marine Corps Air Defense Artillery. She was made a member of the U. S. Field Artillery Association's Honorable Order of Molly Pitcher, awarded by Major General John Kiley, Adjutant General of Rhode Island, for her dedicated and significant service to her husband, the U. S. Army, and the First Battalion, 103rd Field Artillery Regiment of the Rhode Island National Guard.
A lifelong Episcopalian, Mrs. Read attended St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Pawtucket, as a child, and was an active member of St. John's Episcopal Church, Barrington, and St. Mark's Episcopal Churches in Riverside and Venice, where she volunteered in the parish's "Design Consign" shop.
Mrs. Read was a strong, talented, cheerful woman, a generous hostess who was an avid bowler, golfer and ceramicist. She spent many years with Harold aboard their 33-foot Pacemaker, the WREN IV, and was an able sailing partner and first mate. She has been a faithful friend to many and a treasured matriarch to her family, where her passion and priorities have always been based. She is dearly loved and will be deeply missed.
Survivors include her son Reginald (wife Susan Hirst), daughter Elaine (husband Bob Crowell), and daughter Nancy (husband Denny Holst); grandchildren Christopher Booth, Amy Read Self, Andrew Booth and John Read; 13 great-grandchildren; and a host of nieces and nephews who loved and admired her. Besides her husband and parents, she was pre-deceased by her brothers James Gray and Carl Gray, and sisters Mildred Sullivan and Dorothy Wallace.
At a future date to be determined, Mrs. Read will be buried next to her husband in St. John's Episcopal Church Memorial Garden, 191 County Road, Barrington, RI.