Lois Reynolds of Cross River turns 106

Lois Reynolds with a bouquet of birthday flowers.

Lois Reynolds surrounded by family and her caregiver.

By MAUREEN L. KOEHL 

Lois Elizabeth Reynolds recently celebrated her 106th birthday with a smile and a lot of memories to share with her family gathered around her. 

Lois was born to Marion Gick Reynolds and Edwin Trowbridge Reynolds on May 31, 1919. Born in the front room of the Reynolds’ 18th century family homestead, the gambrel-roofed house on Route 35 that still keeps watch over the Cross River hamlet, Lois is proud of the fact that it was the same house in which her father and grandfather, George Washington Reynolds, were born. 

I asked Lois why she wasn’t born in the borning room of the late 18th century-house and she said, “I guess they didn’t know what was happening!”

Lois had two younger siblings, Robert and Joyce, now deceased. She is the family matriarch in the eyes of her niece, Carol Ann DeRose, and nephews Kenneth and Richard. There is a strong sense of history instilled in the Reynolds family and Lois is the keeper of that history. In 1930 her father built the house on Route 35 just east of the homestead where Lois still lives.

Never married, Lois once told me that a friend had described her as “an unclaimed flower.” And that flower has kept growing and given joy and friendship to the world around her for 106 years, most of them spent in Cross River, the hamlet whose history is closely associated with the Reynolds family. 

Arriving in the mid-1700s the Reynolds family is synonymous with the history of Cross River; in 1789, three Reynolds relatives organized the Cross River Baptist Church and by 1790, the 36-foot-by-30-foot church was ready for worship. That white church on the hillside overlooking the reservoir still stands as possibly the oldest Baptist Church in the state.

Until Joyce’s death in 2015, the sisters shared their home, their zest for life, and love for the Cross River Baptist Church their forefathers founded. As a young person Lois was active in the church’s Christian Endeavor Society and remembers when the Civilian Conservation Corps boys from Camp Merkel on Ward Pound Ridge Reservation would come to the Christian Endeavor Halloween and Christmas parties. Until she was in her 90s Lois served as treasurer of the church board.

The Reynolds family produced farmers, mill operators, merchants and at least one Revolutionary soldier, Nathanial Reynolds, who fought in the battles of Ridgefield and White Plains before he was captured while on guard duty and held on a British ship in New York Harbor where he sewed uniforms for the British soldiers.

Lois’s nephew, Ken, recently found the original deed to the family’s property, signed in 1754, by King George II, a King’s Land Grant deed of one square mile, part of which is now part of Ward Pound Ridge Reservation. 

Lois’ father, Edwin, was a dairy and chicken farmer, delivering thousands of eggs to New York City markets during his lifetime. Lois shared a tale of just how dedicated [or tired] he was when one time he went missing only to be found sound asleep in the chicken coop with hundreds of little chicks climbing over him. That coop was only recently taken down. Niece Carol Ann remembered her aunt describing how her father drove his horse-drawn farm wagon up and down Route 35 to various farms, especially Four Winds, before the highway was paved.  

Lois remembers playing the part of the older sister to Joyce, 12 years younger. When asked if she enjoyed being the “big sister,” she said, “Oh, guess so, I just had to be, but Joyce didn’t always obey me, especially when I shook the duster at her and told her to help clean. She would shake her head and run outdoors to be with the farm animals.” 

When told that she seemed to be open to challenges and taking a chance, Lois replied, “If I thought I could do something with that chance, I’d attempt it,” but denied being a risk taker. She attended secretarial school in White Plains and was contemplating working toward a court stenographer’s certificate when one of those “chances” came up. Her Aunt Vera, in Buffalo, who worked for the New York Central Railroad, suggested she come northwest and take a temporary position for the NYCRR. That was Nov. 11, 1941, just before the attack on Pearl Harbor. The attack led to a full-time job when the war broke out and she took the place of the man for whom she was filling in. Lois retired from ConRail in 1984, returned to Cross River and went right back into being involved in the community, this time with the Lewisboro Seniors. She served as president and was inducted into the Westchester County Senior Hall of Fame in the early 1990s.

Lois’ long life has been filled with watching her family grow, enriched by nieces and nephews. Thanks to her brother Robert’s children, Carol Ann, Kenneth and Richard, she has six grandnieces and grandnephews, and three great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews.  

Asked for any secrets to a long productive life, Lois Reynolds holds to what she said on her 100th birthday.

“Don’t stop. Just keep busy in the right way. That was the way I got through my life in Buffalo,” she said. “Keep active in your church and keep in touch with your friends.”

Maureen Koehl is the Lewisboro town historian.