Barbara O. Reed

Barbara O. Reed, 88, of Clarion passed away Tuesday, January 20, 2009 at Careage in Clarion.

Memorial services for Barbara Reed will be held at a later date.

Ewing Funeral Home, 602 North Main Street in Clarion is assisting the family.

Barbara Olive Reed was born December 11, 1920 on a farm near Belmond, Iowa, daughter of Reuben Reed and Edith Renicker Reed.

She attended a one-room rural school and, yes, she walked 2 miles to school, sometimes in the snow.

While attending Belmond High School she qualified to compete in two state-wide contests, geometry and English grammar, and won seventh place in the state grammar contest.

She was graduated from the junior college at Mason City, Iowa, and from the State University of Iowa (SUI) at Iowa City, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree with certificate in journalism.  She also received the Community Journalism award.  At SUI she was proud to be one of the students of Earl English, who later was dean of the Columbia School of Journalism in Missouri.

She could not have attended college without the generosity of a Belmond physician, Dr. George H. Steele and his wife, Inga, who cheerfully paid all expenses as needed.

Within a week of receiving her diploma at Iowa City in 1944, she moved to Moline to work for the Daily Dispatch.  She served at various times as reporter, state editor, copy editor and photographer and retired in 1986 after 42 years.

She moved from Moline to Rock Island in 1999.  She liked animals, especially dogs and cats and was a volunteer at the Rock Island County Animal Welfare Society in Milan.  She also volunteered in the WVIK Apris program for reading to the blind, and at Trinity Hospital in Rock Island.

Barbara is survived by her sister Virginia Sadler (Donald) of Clarion; two nieces: Nikki Slaughter (DeWayne) of Treynor and Nancy Irwin (Harry) of Reno, Nevada.

She was preceded in death by her parents.

Memorials can be made to an animal shelter of your choice.