Florence Gilson Reese, 65, was optician

Florence Gilson Reese, an optician, died Monday at Church Hospital of pneumonia. She was 65 and lived on McKenzie Road in Ellicott City.

Services for Mrs. Reese were being held today at All Saints Episcopal Church, 201 Chatsworth Ave., Reisterstown.

She and her husband, C. Gordon Reese Jr., also an optician, had worked for Professional Vision Associates since 1982 when they sold their own business, Reese and Reese.

Mrs. Reese had started working for Mount Vernon Opticians in the 1960s.

A native of Elmore, Ohio, the former Florence Gilson was reared there and in Kentucky before she came to Baltimore, where she graduated from Eastern High School.

A lyric soprano, Mrs. Reese was a soloist in the choir of the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration as a young woman and also sang at weddings, in USO shows and in operettas staged by B&O Railroad employees.

In addition to her husband, her survivors include a son, Michael G. Reese of Ellicott City; two daughters, Jonette Reese-Brotman of Reisterstown and Suzanne Kormanik of Tucson, Ariz.; four grandchildren; and several great-grandchildren.