Kathleen O. Reynolds

She was married to the love of her life, James T. Reynolds until his death on January 2, 1996. She was a homemaker who dedicated her life to her husband, children and grandchildren, and is also considered by many who knew her to be “the Grandmother of Island Heights.”

She attended Duke University, where she met her husband, and left to marry him on January 26, 1949. She finished her last semester at Kean College and proudly received her BA from Duke University on May 7, 1978.

She was a woman who worked tirelessly in the background for others and did not like the spotlight. She was a past president, along with her husband, of St. Bartholomew’s Parents Guild in Scotch Plains, 1967-1968. She worked on the St. Joseph’s Endowment for Catholic Education, Toms River, for which she was honored at a dinner where she was the distinguished honoree in 2005, the only time she allowed herself to be the center of attention.

She was a member of the Island Heights Yacht Club and its Ladies Auxiliary from the time she was married until her death. She received the Dorothy Hummel Memorial Award for service and loyalty to the Ladies Auxiliary in 1984. But one of her most treasured awards was from the Island Heights Junior Sailing Association in 2007 in appreciation of her outstanding service and dedication to Junior Sailing. In addition to hosting junior sailors for the Junior Olympics for many years, she opened her beach and pool to junior sailors who needed a place to keep their boats or to cool off on sweltering summer days.

Surviving are her children, Elizabeth Joan Reynolds Leahey, Island Heights, James F. Reynolds and his wife, Kim, Philip E. Reynolds and his wife, Marga, her grandchildren, Ryan W. Keating, Mark P. Keating,, James Tod Reynolds and his wife, Jennifer Wilson, David B. Reynolds and Margaret Kelly Reynolds, Margaret Kathleen Robie and her husband, Jack, Philip E. Reynolds, William T. Reynolds, James E. Reynolds and fiancé Elizabeth Ryan. She is also survived by two great-grandchildren, Elizabeth Jane Reynolds and Isabel Kathryn Robie.

Visitation will be held on Monday, December 2, 2019 from 4 to 7 p.m. at Anderson and Campbell Funeral Home, 703 Main St., Toms River. A Funeral Mass will be held on Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. at St. Joseph’s Church, 685 Hooper Ave, Toms River. Burial will follow at St. Joseph’s Cemetery in Toms River.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Sailing Foundation of Barnegat Bay and earmark for Ladies Auxiliary Memorial Fund or Long Range Planning.