Spaghetti supper to benefit family of Esther Reynolds

When: 5-7 p.m. Nov. 17

Where: Sabattus Central School

Cost: $5 adults, $3 children

Devoted reading teacher dies

SABATTUS – Her passion for literacy led her to start the town’s short-lived library and organize a program to get three books into the hands of school kids every year. Colleagues at Sabattus Central School remembered Esther Reynolds on Wednesday as smart, special and dedicated. She taught there 17 years.

Reynolds died Tuesday at age 47 from cancer.

Annie Mercier of Litchfield, an education technician like Reynolds, started work one day before her friend in 1990. She said Reynolds, an avid reader, got in touch with novelist Tabitha King to raise funds for the Town Square Community Library and held garage sales to try to keep it going.

“I think it broke her heart that it fell through,” Mercier said. “She just walked quietly among us but tried to accomplish some good things.”

Her brother, Clint Daggett Jr., called Reynolds “a real capable, strong person.” When friends noticed she was getting tired in September, they offered to take over her lunch monitoring duties. Reynolds insisted she stick it out.

Their family was originally from Niagara Falls, N.Y., and in her first career, Reynolds had been a travel agent. She visited Russia, Yugoslavia and other far-flung places, often alone. When the family migrated to Maine in the 1980s, she met her husband at L.L.Bean and settled here.

“She was very comfortable with the people in Sabattus,” Daggett said. “She has a bazillion friends from all over.”

Principal Beverly Coursey said Reynolds had a real passion to teach kids how to read. She brought the Reading Is Fundamental program to the school’s attention and helped secure a grant for it. Reynolds saw that three times a year every child in the school got a book.

“Her parents and students were really grateful for that,” Coursey said. “She was very loved, dedicated. She was very involved in school.”

Reynolds and her husband, Mark, had two daughters, ages 13 and 11. Coursey said counselors were brought in this week to talk to students and staff. The school has organized a benefit for the family on Nov. 17.