WILTON — Sharon Rainey, 81, who died Saturday from injuries from a fire at her home at Magrath Road, was remembered Monday as someone who was always willing to help others.

The owner of Dutch Treat, a seasonal eatery and ice cream shop on U.S. Route 2 in Wilton, Rainey died at a Portland hospital. A neighbor and police officers rescued her from the first-floor bedroom of the two-story house she shared with her significant other, Robert Adams, 84.

He received burns, according to Rainey’s daughter, Alison Rainey Welch of Wilton, who started at Dutch Treat at age 14 and had been the manager since 2007.

Rainey and her late sister, Gloria, and their husbands opened Dutch Treat in 1963.

Rainey and her late husband, Robert “Buddy” Rainey, bought the sister’s part of the business from her.

Wilton businessman Al Kaplan said Sharon Rainey was a dedicated member of the First Congregational Church in Wilton and a friend.

“(Sharon) and Bud helped me with my business, ‘Your Hometown Market’ (in Wilton), when I was starting out,” Kaplan said. “They taught me how to keep up with everyone and everything.”

She will be remembered for being there for “every person in Franklin County,” he said. “She helped with any fundraiser for the church or community activity. She was a very good person.”

Rainey gave many kids their first job at her ice cream establishment.

“Sharon was a real asset to the community,” resident Tom Saviello of Wilton wrote in an email Monday. “She taught kids how to work. She worked to get Wilton back on the business map. She was an integral part of her church and the Wilton (Blueberry Festival) church chicken feed. She was one fine person.”

Saviello said the best memory he has of Rainey is when he went to help at Dutch Treat as a state senator.

“She and her husband, Buddy, told me I could have the fifth window all to myself,” he wrote. “I was so proud. I asked the kids working there, where was the fifth window. They laughed and said there was no such window!”

“Sharon had a commendable love for her family, community, and her faith,” Liz Tracy of Chesterville wrote. Tracy worked for the Raineys from 2004-09. They became friends and like family to her.

“(Rainey’s) dad was the creator of the … Foster Tech Center, and Sharon held true to her dad’s beliefs of teaching young adults to better themselves,” Tracy wrote.

She taught generations of young adults success in the business world under the roof of the Dutch Treat, Tracy said.

“Whether a planned lesson or by accident, her words of wisdom always shined through,” Tracy wrote. “At Dutch Treat you were family and family was the most important to Sharon! She took kids under her wing, creating a safe place, a home.

“Her love for her family was admirable, with so many proud stories that she had to share,” Tracy wrote. “She loved it when they all came home and went to their family camp. Her and Buddy were lifelong sweethearts and shared a love most can only dream of. She was a true inspiration to many, and our community is better because of her part in it. Sharon you will be greatly missed by all! Rest easy!”

“She was a remarkable woman!” Tracy added.

Shannon Smith of Wilton, a friend of the Raineys, said she babysat for Sharon and Buddy when their children were younger for 25 cents.

“We have always been friends,” she said, since they were growing up.

One of her memories is that Sharon used to let them go out back of Dutch Treat and have ice cream when they wanted it, Smith said.

She and Sharon served on the former Wilton Chamber of Commerce, she said.

The Raineys always supplied the ice cream prizes at the road races for the Blueberry Festival, said Smith, a chairperson of the event for 30 years.

“Sharon was a dear, dear friend of mine,” she said, adding that she will be missed.