Alice Frances Sullivan Phelps, a Rye resident for over 85 years, died July 22, at the age of 90, one month short of her 91st birthday. She was born August 27, 1921 in Boston, Massachusetts, daughter of Charles Francis Sullivan and Johanna Sullivan (who died in 1928) and was raised in Rye by her father, and his second wife, Cecile Cote Sullivan.
Mrs. Phelps attended Milton Elementary School, Resurrection School and graduated from Rye H.S. in 1940. She graduated from Berkeley School in New York City, and joined the U.S. Navy in the WAVES unit in 1942, during World War II. She was honorably discharged in 1945, and returned to Rye.
She married Rye native Charles G. Phelps on October 22, 1946; Mr. Phelps, a Rye firefighter, passed away in 1978. They have one daughter, Robin Lynn Phelps Latimer, and one granddaughter, Meagan Sullivan Latimer.
Mrs. 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, DDS as a receptionist in his 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 Memorial Day every May, and Veterans Day every November, on the Village Green in Rye, selling poppies to benefit the Legion Auxiliary programs.
