Judy Kay Reed

Judy Kay Reed, nee Chapman, was born on May 17, 1940, in Seattle, WA. She was a precocious child and learned to read before she went to school, taught by her father. At the age of seven, she suffered the trauma of her father’s death in a swimming accident and survived the bizarre behavior of her mother following that death. In spite of that emotional trauma, she excelled in school, became a baton-twirling majorette, and graduated from high school at the age of sixteen.

Seeking independence, she moved out of her family home into an apartment and worked several jobs before being hired as a laboratory technician at the University of Washington School of Medicine. While working in the photo development darkroom, an Assistant Professor of Anatomy exposed himself to her. Typical of the times, she lost her job when she reported the event to the head of the Anatomy Department. Undaunted by this set-back, she completed the prescribed course of study and received the wings of a TWA airline hostess. However, after only a few flights, she quit because of the sexual harassment hostesses were expected to put up with from male passengers and pilots.

She returned to Seattle in 1960 and was hired on as an electron microscope technician in the Dermatology Department of the U.W. Medical School. It was there that she met her future husband, a second-year medical student. After a whirl-wind courtship, they were married on December 22, 1960. She continued working as a lab technician while her husband finished medical school and a residency in Dermatology. They moved to Spokane, where her husband joined the staff of Rockwood Clinic.

Judy began a long career of volunteer service to the community, which included serving on the board of and a term as President of the YWCA and the Volunteer Coordinator of the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery. Judy was an ardent feminist and worked on the Spokane Committee of Washington Citizens for Abortion Reform, which worked for the passage of Referendum 20 to legalize abortion in Washington State in 1970. She was also a delegate to the World Conference of the International Women’s Year held in Mexico in 1975.

Judy was dedicated to her family and preferred the role of homemaker and stay-at-home mother rather than pursue a career. Her daughter and son thrived under her care. Her love and pride consumed her when she attended the graduations of her daughter from Cornell Law School and her son from Harvard Law School.

Judy was a dedicated knitter, first with yarn, making and giving away many beautiful afghans. Then she mastered the art of bead-knitting, making and selling and gifting beautiful handbags. She also was athletic, running numerous marathons with her long-time friend Judy Kaufman. When her daughter adopted an infant in Guatemala, Judy accompanied her there to meet her granddaughter and returned again with her daughter to bring her granddaughter home to Walla Walla a few months later.

Judy enjoyed the years of retirement spent at the home she and her husband built on Lake Roosevelt and in Walla Walla until dementia robbed her of cognition. Judy died at home, her family beside her. A lifelong atheist, she was the epitome of the adage, “you can be good without God.” She is survived by her husband, daughter, son, three grandchildren, and her sister.

Donations may be made in her name to Planned Parenthood through Herring Groseclose Funeral Home, 315 W Alder St., Walla Walla, WA 99362.