Elvira Muriel Reid

Elvira ("Ellie"") Reid, 96, passed away on March 2, 2023 in Greeley. She was born January 30, 1927 in Wadena, Minnesota to Joseph and Loretta Reilly, and was raised in Dickinson, North Dakota, the oldest of four girls, where her father and grandfather operated the Reilly Coal Company. Growing up, the family enjoyed going on picnics to the Badlands and visiting Medora.

She attended high school during the years of WWII. She remembered walking out of high school one April day in 1945 when the principal lowered the flag to half-mast and told her with tears in his eyes that President Roosevelt had died.

For a year after high school, she worked as a secretary at the U.S. Employment office in Dickinson. Then she attended and graduated from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. After graduation, she taught English in Regent, ND for a year.

She and her sister, Margaret, who had just graduated from nursing school, made plans to move to Los Angeles to work. Elvira got a job as a secretary at the Franchise Tax Board and Margaret worked as an OR nurse. They enjoyed LA-it was very sate and beautiful then.

After several years, the sisters decided to move to smaller community and thought Oregon looked like the place. Elvira attended the University of Oregon for a term and had job offer to teach English and be the annual advisor at the new Albany Union High School in Albany, Oregon. Margaret was able to get a nursing job too.

After a couple years teaching, Elvira was introduced to her future husband, a young veterinarian - Bob Reid, by her insurance agent, who arranged a blind date. They were married on March 11, 1956 and were married for 59 years. They had one daughter, Margaret (Grant). After Dr. Bob retired, the couple moved to Greeley in 2004 to be near Margaret and her husband, Tom, and their two grandsons, Reid and Michael. Bob passed away in 2015 at the age of 91.

In Albany, Elvira was a member of the Friends of the Library, PEO, Thursday Study Club and Leisure Hour Book Club. She enjoyed baking, gardening and music. She played the organ for many years at St. Peter's and St. Alban's Episcopal Church in Albany.

In Greeley, She was a member of the Trinity Episcopal Church and Trinity Guild. She was a past member of the Assistance League, and particularly enjoyed working at Houston Gardens, when the League managed it. She loved being a grandma and spent lots of time shuttling the boys from one activity to another. She also enjoyed playing Scrabble with the family and usually won - Including on her birthday this year!

In addition to her husband, and parents, Elvira was preceded in death by all three of her sisters and brothers-in-law, Margaret and Ged Wade, Joan and George Amsden, and Jean and Roger Lehmann, as well as a nephew, Terry Amsden. Also preceded in death on the Reid side by brothers/sister-in-law, Dick and Jeannette Reid and Roger Reid, as well as a niece, Nell Reid.

She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Margaret and Tom Grant of Greeley, grandsons - Reid Grant and Fiancé Emily Wallack of Hoboken, NJ and Michael Grant of Chicago, IL, many nieces and nephews and friends. A special thank you to nieces Carol Qvale of Missoula, MT and Liisa Reid of Albany, OR who were faithful pen pals with Elvira. The Grant Family- especially Dick and Josie were good friends for 34 years (since Tom and Margaret's marriage) and visited often. Mary Linscome was a very good friend who visited Elvira weekly. We are thankful to the wonderful staff and friends at Grace Pointe and to Pathways Hospice. Services will be held late spring/ early summer at Trinity Episcopal Church in Greeley, and memorial donations can be made to Trinity at 3800 W. 20th Street, Greeley, CO 80634.