Laura Jean Reed

LAURA JEAN BATES CARLSON REED

1/9/2022 Nashua NH

Laura Jean "Dorrie" was born in Salem OR in 1925 to Ruth U (Newton) and Arthur B Bates. She attended Salem schools and enjoyed skating and knitting.  She interrupted her Home Economics studies at Willamette University to answer her country's call to train and work as a nurse as part of the WWII Nurse Cadet Corp at Emmanuel Hospital, Portland OR. After the war she earned her bachelor’s degree and then worked as a nurse in an ENT practice. In 1948 she married the late William D Carlson. They raised their 4 children in Eugene OR and Greenville MS. They were married 36 years until his death.  In 1987 she married the late Verlin Dean Reed. During her long life she served her country, cared for her family, and in her senior years participated in the Mobile Missionary Assistance Program (MAPP) RVing across the country helping member churches. She was also part of a multi-generational line of members in PEO, an international philanthropic organization supporting women in education. She enjoyed camping, travel, gardening, homeopathic remedies, and was always a passionate reader with a penchant for the most clever and imaginative use of everyday items as bookmarks. She was 96 years old when she started her final journey after long declining health issues but was still speaking her mind until the end.

She is survived by her older brother, Dale Bates and his wife Mary Ann of Liberty Hill TX; children, Christine Carlson and her partner Patricia Gillenwater, Dewey AZ; the late Karen C Holcomb Creely; Arthur Carlson and his wife Jeannette Rubner, Munich Germany; Barbara Beelle and her wife Lisa, Concord NH. She is also survived by grandchildren and great-grandchildren: Heather Whitcomb, her husband Seth and their boys, Ethan and Dylan; Jeffrey Holcomb, his wife Stefanie Gazda and their daughter Audrey; Lorenz Rubner; Claire, Louise and Felix Carlson.

The family wishes to thank the caregivers of the Hunt Community of Nashua NH and Hospice of Merrimack NH for their care of this amazing woman who they described as feisty, a fighter and a treasure. She was dearly loved and will be greatly missed.

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