Grace Dorothy Reid

Grace D. Reid, 97 year old Worland resident passed away on Aug. 12, 2008 at the Worland Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center.

Grace Dorothy (Riebe) Reid was born on March 3, 1911 near Greeley, Kansas, at home, with her fraternal twin sister, Emily Eunice. They were the seventh and eighth of nine children born to Louie F. & Helena (Gansauer) Riebe. She was a master speller in school and valedictorian of the graduating class of Welda High School in 1929. She was also the senior class president and the only female of 5 graduates that year.

Grace attended Business College in Lawrence, KS, living with a family for room and board in exchange for housekeeping and babysitting duties. After graduation she returned to Welda where she worked in a bank which closed, never to reopen, during the early years of the depression. Grace later moved to Topeka, KS and worked for the Peabody School Supply Company where she met husband- to-be. John Woods Reid, Sr., worked as a delivery man for the school supply firm, and was very persistent in his pursuit of the new bookkeeper on staff. He would take her home after work in his Model T. They dated for a time and were married on March 28, 1936 in Topeka. The bride knitted her wedding dress, which was later unraveled for the yarn to be used by her sister Edith.

The couple moved to Chicago where John worked for WPA until getting a job with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad where he worked for 17 years. Oldest son John (Jack) Woods, Jr. was born there October 28, 1938 and a daughter Suzanne Rae was born January 20, 1942, in Oak Park, IL. Next, Michael Allen was born June 12, 1951, in Peoria, IL.

Having gone to Wyoming every year to hunt and fish with twin sister, Jean’s husband, it was John’s dream to live in the Equality State and raise the family there. So in 1952, in a pickup fitted with rails, they loaded their family and all their possessions and moved west to Laramie, WY, where with in a year they purchased the Silver Spur Motel on Second Street added a daughter Patricia Marie, born December 21, 1953. The entire family became Catholic after John had a serious illness in 1954 and were all baptized in St. Laurence O’Toole Catholic Church. Grace was confirmed at St. Mary Magdalen Church in Worland in 1997.

In the spring of 1962, the motel was sold and the family moved a block away to a house where John opened Reid’s Appliance Repair in the basement. Grace did the book work for the new enterprise until going to work for the University of Wyoming in the residence halls, the library, and then as secretary to a Professor in Education Department until she retired in 1976. She was proficient in short hand and often wrote notes to herself using it.

After retirement, the couple moved to Dubois, WY, where they managed a guest/working ranch, a motel and a trailer park, and ran a mail route up the East Fork Road, where spotting wildlife was a highlight of each days run. They loved Dubois and the old western life style it offered them, in the heart of the Wind River Mountains. Many fishing holes, some accessible only by roads which were a pickup truck wide in places, were their favorite trips to make, with and without children and grandchildren. Grace enjoyed horse back riding with the grandchildren when they visited. She made several quilts using different styles and gave them away as gifts.

Grace worked to make the perfect pie crust, trying various recipes and tricks over the years. She did a great job too! She also made the best scalloped potatoes ever eaten by her family, the secret to which was to boil them over in the oven- many a mess was made and cleaned up in this endeavor.

John suffered a serious heart attack in 1988 while haying during the Yellowstone fire season and took several hair raising ambulance rides to Riverton during the winter of 1988-89. In May, 1989, the couple moved to Worland, to be near their daughter, Pat and her family. John passed away at home August 15, 1989. Grace was very active in the Worland Senior Citizens Center, St. Mary Magdalen Council of Catholic Woman and the Wyoming Literacy Project. She carried mail and ran medical specimens from local doctor’s offices to the post office and/or the airport for many years, and met many new friends. She always said these were her salvation after she was widowed. She read to a blind resident of Worland Healthcare until that woman’s death some years ago. She also taught an illiterate man to read. She worked in the St Mary Magdalen church office Monday mornings for several years. She and Pat delivered meals on Wheels to the “old” folks every year and she taught herself to play bridge in the last 4 years. She enjoyed the community concerts with Delma and Roger Howe, whom the family lived a block away from in Laramie. Sylva Spangler was her good friend and Sunday afternoon game player for many years,

Grace lived independently until 10 months ago when she spent 7 weeks at the Pioneer Home in Thermopolis before moving to Worland Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center in December 2007.

She was preceded in death by her parents, husband in 1989, 5 sisters and 2 brothers and one daughter, Suzanne in 1982.

Grace is survived by two sons: John “Jack” (Vera) Reid of Laramie and Michael Allen (Amelia) of College Station, TX, and daughter: Patricia Marie (Ed) Cummins of Worland, WY. Also surviving are granddaughters: Terry Lynn (Rod) Kipp and children Tyrell, Alona and Hawkins of Casper, WY; Kristi Kay (Kent) Kettle and children Katrina, Kevin and Kasey of Rock Springs, WY; Dee Anna (John) Murphy and children Alecia and her daughter Tayla of Bagdad, AZ, and Cassie (Monty Macedo) of Reno, NV; Toby Jo (Craig) Bricker and children Breanna (Hal Lewis) and their son Hal Lewis V, Scott and Billy of Phoenix, AZ, Jami Sue (Jim) Roberts and children Jesse, Hunter, Caleb, Cameron and Brody of Cheyenne, WY; Heidi DeLaRosa and daughter Olivia Grace of College Station, TX; Carole Patricia (Brent) Becker and daughters Mikayla and Nicole of College Station, TX and Bridget Cummins (Eric Saylor) of Phoenix, AZ. Her youngest brother, Louis Edward of Kansas and her sister-in-law and friend Jean Linde, of Laramie also survive her as well as a countless number of nieces, nephews, cousins and friends including Barbara Merry of Otis, Kansas, a very special friend from the Dubois years.