Frances L. Gaines

Frances L. Gaines, who raised three children in the house on Middle Highway in East Hampton in which her husband, Thomas E. Gaines, had been born, died in her sleep last Thursday following a long illness, her family said. She was 91.

She married Mr. Gaines on June 7, 1947, in Little Rock, Ark. After he graduated from Oklahoma A&M, the couple relocated to East Hampton in the summer of 1949. In 1978, they moved to Dayton Lane in the village, where she had lived ever since. Her husband died in 2012.

As she was small of stature, her extended family nicknamed her Tiny. An enthusiastic gardener who also enjoyed sewing and knitting for the women’s society of the East Hampton Methodist Church, Mrs. Gaines was a longtime member of the Order of the Eastern Star. She could often be found feeding ducks at the Nature Trail on David’s Lane here.

Mrs. Gaines, who went by Fran, was born on Sept. 21, 1923, in Hollidaysburg, Pa., to Francis Carl and the former Nanny Showalter. Her father died in 1926. George Moyer was her stepfather.

A graduate of Altoona Area High School in Pennsylvania, Mrs. Gaines also attended what was formerly the Mount Sinai School of Nursing, graduating in 1946.

A funeral service took place on Tuesday at the East Hampton Methodist Church, with burial following at Cedar Lawn Cemetery.

Mrs. Gaines is survived by three children: Sandra Cohen and Ron Gaines, both of East Hampton, and Tom Gaines of Port St. Lucie, Fla. She leaves 17 nieces and nephews, 7 grandchildren, and 18 great-grandchildren. A sister, Geraldine Dunkel, and a brother, Joe Carl, died before her.