Alice Frances (Sullivan) Phelps

1921 - 2012

Alice Frances Sullivan Phelps, a Rye resident for more than 85 years, died July 22, 2012, at age 90, one month short of her 91st birthday.

She was born Aug. 27, 1921, in Boston, Mass., daughter of Charles Francis Sullivan and Johanna Sullivan, who died in 1928. She was raised in Rye by her father and his second wife, Cecile Cote Sullivan.

Phelps attended Milton Elementary School, Resurrection School, and graduated from Rye High School in 1940. She graduated from Berkeley School in New York City, and joined the U.S. Navy in the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) unit in 1942, during World War II. She was honorably discharged in 1945.

Phelps was a communicant at Church of the Resurrection in Rye, and was active in many local organizations, including the Midland PTO, the Resurrection Family Mass Folk Group, the Rye Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary, and the American Legion Post 128, where she served as adjutant, the first female Legion officer for that post.

For 20 years, she worked for Dr. John Finnegan as a receptionist in his dental offices in Blind Brook Lodge, and was well known by the many patients who lived throughout the area. She was a regular presence each year at the patriotic services held on the Village Green in Rye on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, selling poppies to benefit the Legion Auxiliary programs.

Phelps was preceded in death by her husband, Charles G. Phelps, a Rye firefighter who passed away in 1978. They were married Oct. 22, 1946. She is survived by one daughter, Robin Lynn Phelps Latimer, and one granddaughter, Meagan Sullivan Latimer.

The family will receive friends at the Graham Funeral Home from 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, July 25. A funeral Mass will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, July 26, at the Church of the Resurrection in Rye, with interment to follow at Greenwood Union Cemetery in Rye.

Arrangements by Graham Funeral Home, Rye.