Freda Roberta Foss Kilcollins
KILCOLLINS, Freda Roberta Foss, 91, MAPLETON, at Presque Isle, March 16, 2012. A memorial service will be held at The United Baptist Church of Mapleton on Saturday, May 12, 2012, at 1 p.m. Arrangements in care of Duncan-Graves Funeral Homes, Presque Isle.
MAPLETON – Freda Roberta Foss Kilcollins passed away on March 16, 2012, at Presque Isle Nursing Home, a little over two weeks short of her 92nd birthday; her husband of sixty years, Hilston T. Kilcollins, predeceased her, also in Presque Isle Nursing Home, on January 28, 2012. Born March 29, 1920, in Chapman, Freda was the daughter of Halsted C. Foss (also born in Chapman) and Grace (Warman) Foss (born in Bancroft, Washington County, Maine).
Freda was an identical twin; her sister, Frances Rowena Foss Larsson, predeceased her in 2000. Freda and Frances were so identical as to have been still frequently mistaken for one another well into their forties.
Freda and Frances were born in a house on their family’s farm in Chapman about eleven years before electricity became available to that portion of the West Chapman Road. They lived with their parents (and Grace’s mother Phebe [Pomroy] Warman) in a house that was moved from the west side of the road to the east side (where it still sits today) when they were seven or eight years old.
Halsted’s parents, Llewellyn A. and Nellie (McGlauflin) Foss, and Nellie’s mother, Mariam “Mazie” (Greenlaw) McGlauflin (whom they called “Grammy Mac”), lived in the next neighboring house to the south, a few hundred yards away. Llewellyn had cleared the original farm and homestead out of the forest in the 1870s; and Grammy Mac had journeyed with her sister’s young children by foot and wagon between Presque Isle and Washington County before the Civil War began, so Freda and Frances grew up surrounded by family and memories of County pioneer days that did not seem remote in time or place.
When Freda and Frances weren’t feeding poultry, attending to other farm and home chores, attending church or church functions at the United Baptist Church of Mapleton, or studying under the tutelage of Grace (also a teacher), they attended local public schools, skipping grades and graduating from Mapleton High School at the age of 16 in 1936. By 1939, age 19, Freda and Frances had each obtained a teaching degree from Aroostook State Normal School (now University of Maine at Presque Isle), and accepted teaching positions in Mapleton public schools.
Freda’s first teaching job was in the Hughes Road school in Mapleton, where she also had to tend the stove. Working in a rural school district, she taught wherever she was needed (including the one-room Old Mill School that is, today, the home of the Haystack Historical Society) and in whichever grade (or grades) she was needed. Freda received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in teaching at the University of Maine in Orono. Freda eventually spent a total of 32 years teaching, most of them in Mapleton. When walking around with Freda in any public place in Mapleton or Presque Isle, it was a common occurrence to be approached by Freda’s (and sometimes, mistakenly, Frances’s) former students, eager to be remembered.
While attending Normal School, Freda met Hilston Kilcollins, who had graduated the year before her. Hilston courted her assiduously, and never really stopped; they were a couple from 1939 until he passed away in January 2012. After World War II began, and Hilston had graduated from Officer Candidates School, Hilston called Freda on a Sunday, told her he’d be home on Wednesday, and wanted to marry her on Thursday. Luckily for him, she said “Yes.” Hilston and Freda were married at the Foss home in Chapman on Thursday, June 25, 1942. This coming June will bring the 70th anniversary of their wedding.
After Hilston served with distinction as a forward artillery observer in Sicily and the Salerno and Anzio campaigns, he was sent home to train artillery officers. Freda joined him for his postings to Fort Devens, Massachusetts, Fort Drum, New York, and Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Once Hilston was mustered out of the service in 1946, Hilston and Freda came home and put their energies into the Foss family potato farm in Chapman (which they eventually bought from Halsted) and into making a home for themselves in the house formerly occupied by Llewellyn, Nellie, and Grammy Mac. As time went on, they also acquired a camp on Long Lake, close by the camp owned by Freda’s cousin, Rachel (Higgins) Burden (daughter of Halsted’s sister, Hazel (Foss) Higgins), and eventually moved back into the house in which she and Frances had been raised, making that, too, into a comfortable home to whom they invited many friends and family members.
Hilston and Freda invited Wanda Kaplinger (nee Clifford) into their home as an eight year old and cared for her as a foster child for ten years, and stayed in touch with Wanda, her children, and her grandchildren throughout Wanda’s adult life.
Freda was a cheerful and comforting host, a wonderful cook, and a savvy Scrabble player. She smiled easily and often. She was a lifelong member of the United Baptist Church of Mapleton, serving in various capacities, including member of the Board of Directors. Rev. Dr. Kenneth Phelps of the United Baptist Church of Mapleton has been a close friend and wonderful support to Hilston and Freda for many years, especially in times of need.
Freda is survived by Rachel and Rachel’s sisters (and Hazel’s daughters) Mariam (Higgins) Keirstead and Barbara (Higgins) Schmidt; by foster daughter Wanda Kaplinger, her husband Christian, Wanda’s sons Jesse and Joseph Thomas, Wanda’s daughter Sarah and Wanda’s five grandchildren; by the children of Hilston’s sister Alta, including nephew Ralph Clark, and nieces F. Ann Pelletier, Holly Alley, Hedda Mooney, Penny Gorman, and Joan Fournier; by Frances’s sons, David (and his wife, Anne [Schlegel] Larsson) and Donald (and his wife, Natalie Rosinsky); by all of their respective children; and by many other loving friends and family members.
Peace to her memory.
A memorial service will be held, for both Hilston and Freda, at The United Baptist Church of Mapleton on Saturday, May 12, 2012, at 1 p.m. There will be a committal at the South Side Cemetery grave following the memorial service, and then a reception back at the church. There will be no visiting hours. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to The United Baptist Church of Mapleton, P.O. Box 174, Mapleton, ME 04757. Online condolences may be expressed at duncan-graves.com
