Beloved daughter Gretchen Wendell Finley, 39, passed away Feb. 21, 2021, of an acute asthma attack, in Manchester, New Hampshire, where she had lived for many years.
Gretchen was born Columbus Day, 1981, in Pekin, Illinois, and two weeks later, her parents brought her and her twin brother to live in New Jersey.
She attended Rumson Country Day school, Westminster School, Rumson-Fair Haven High School and the University of Southern Maine. She enjoyed competing in team sports – especially field hockey, ice hockey and soccer – with some golf and sailing thrown in, but mostly, she was a team player.
Gretchen made her off-Broadway debut at RCDS, age 5, when she starred in “Where the Wild Things Are,” followed the next year with the lead role in “Little Red Riding Hood.” However, the drama quickly became a comedy as Little Red overtook Big Bad in their “chase through the woods.”
Gretchen was a loving, caring and thoughtful soul. And funny. At age 6 she announced: I’m going to write a cat book about cats; it’s called Vic’s Diner! She scrubbed her face each morning to keep her freckles shiny, and on and on.
She is survived, and missed terribly, by her parents, James D. (Dan) and Anne Finley, Middletown; her brother James D. III (Jed) and his wife Brighid, Lake St. Louis, Missouri; her life partner Amy and sons Joshua and Jonathan Michelizza, Manchester, New Hampshire.
Donations can be made in Gretchen’s memory to St. George’s-By-The-River, 7 Lincoln Ave., Rumson, NJ 07760.
The article originally appeared in the March 4 – 10, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
