Retailing was all in the family—both hers and her husband’s. Fund at The Trust supports people with disabilities, housing, and medical research.
Corinne Reynolds Frear (1915-1990)
For Corinne Browning Reynolds and her husband, owning retail stores was a family affair. Her parents ran a furniture store in Troy, New York; she and her husband, Frederick, had a chain of gift shops; and his family owned “the largest and most fantastic department store in upstate New York.”
While the idea of department stores was born in New York City in 1846 with A.T. Stewart’s Marble Palace in Lower Manhattan, Frear’s Troy Cash Bazaar wasn’t far behind. Frederick’s grandfather, William Henry Frear, opened the store in 1865, and advertised in local newspapers to build his business.
Customers came from all over central and northern New York, and from western Massachusetts and Vermont. Frear’s carried anything you could imagine and boasted dozens of departments.
Corinne was born in 1915 and was one of two little girls adopted by Ronald C. Reynolds and the former Grace Roberts. Ronald owned the R. C. Reynolds furniture store, and the family was prominent in Troy.
Corinne attended Knox School in Cooperstown and King-Smith Studio School in Washington, D.C., a “finishing school,” where women learned acting, singing, and social graces. She graduated from Bennington College in Vermont. Corinne was a member of the Junior League and was well known as an exhibitor in horse shows.
Frederick William Frear, also of Troy, was a Yale University graduate. He did graduate work in English at Harvard and was secretary to the board of directors at his family’s store when he met Corrine. In 1941, he joined the Army and was a supply sergeant attached to a military police battalion in New York City. They married in 1943.
After World War II, the couple lived in Albany, where Frederick operated a chain of gift stores, known as Copperfield Shops. In 1968, they moved to New York City and spent summers at their vacation cottage on Cape Cod.
Corinne was nearly or completely deaf her entire adult life. Frederick became deaf suddenly a few years before he died of cancer in 1974 at age 63. They lived on the Upper East Side, and she remained a resident after his death. Corinne died in 1990.
The Corinne R. Frear Fund was established in 2000 for research into the causes and cure of cancer, research into the causes and cure of deafness, resettlement of the homeless, and food and medical services for the needy.
