Doris Winslow Passes Away

Doris J. Winslow, wife of Ronald A. Winslow and a resident of Reading for 66 years, died Thursday, August 31 at Wingate At Reading Rehabilitation Center surrounded by her family. She was 90 years old.

Doris was owner and manager for many years with Ron of Winslow’s store on Haven Street, a Reading institution from 1950 to the mid-1970s. The variety store was across from the depot, open 365 days a year and had loyal customers who relied on it for everything from newspapers, donuts and milk to soda-fountain sundaes, greeting cards, and train tickets.

Beginning in the mid-1970s, she was credit manager at Atlas Paper Co., Woburn for many years. Doris was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana April 13, 1927, the daughter of Donald D. and Helen (Gerken) Long. She attended Defiance College for a year, where she met Ron. After their marriage, she was secretary to the president of the college before she and Ron moved east in 1950. Doris was especially proud of her home in Reading, where she hosted simple but elegant parties for family and friends. She also enjoyed time at the family’s summer cottage on Crystal Lake, Gilmanton Ironworks, N.H., where for 60 years, she insisted on maintaining a rustic, “camp” feeling, reflected by the rotary telephone with a three-foot cord that was mounted on the wall. She and Ron also spent winters for about 20 years at their condominium in Naples Fla. where their Super Bowl party was an annual event.

Doris enjoyed gardening and was an avid artist, producing dozens of paintings, many of which her family members hang proudly in their homes. One of her favorite events was the annual party when the family gathered to make Christmas cookies.

In addition to her husband, to whom she was married for more than 69 years, she is survived by a son, Ronald A. Winslow Jr. and his wife Larkin Warren of Bethel, CT; a daughter Sandra Cronin and her husband Bruce Cronin of Dracut, MA; two grandchildren, Jeffrey Cronin and Jessica Cronin; a step-grandson, Dennis Ostermaier and his wife Leah Panlilio of New York City; a step-great grandson, Aidan Ostermaier; a sister Virginia Corsini of Lambertville, MI.; and many nieces and nephews.

A Funeral Service foe Doris will be held at the Douglass, Edgerley & Bessom Funeral Home 25 Sanborn St., (corner of Woburn St.) Reading on Thursday Sept. 7 at 10 a.m. Funeral Home visiting hours Wednesday 5-8 p.m. Burial at Forest Glen Cemetery, Reading. Those who wish may make memorial donations to the American Cancer Society 30 Speen St. Framingham, MA 01701.