Roberta Kay Reed

Roberta Kay Reed died peacefully at age 77 on January 11 after a courageous 28-month battle with glioblastoma, a type of terminal brain cancer. Her brother, sister-in-law and dedicated care workers were at her bedside during her final days.

Roberta was born in Eugene, Oregon to Alan Bruce Reed and Dorothea Lillie Reed during the period of time after Alan was honorably discharged from the Army Air Corps as a B-17 bombardier in 1945 and before the Air Force recalled him for the Korean War in 1950. She was a happy Air Force kid during her elementary and secondary school education, living in eight different locations in England, various states and the District of Columbia. In those years, she doted on her younger brother and became his role model and best friend as they moved from air base to air base. A highlight of her three-year stint in England was becoming the European-Mediterranean champion of the Scripps-Howard National Spelling Bee. Although she didn’t end up winning the National Spelling Bee, she was treated like a 12-year old dignitary during her free vacations to Paris and Washington, D.C. to participate in the competitions. And, could she ever spell!

Roberta excelled in her other academic pursuits, too, graduating at the top of her high school class in Abilene, Texas. She received her B.A. at Rice University in Art History and English Literature in 1969. She became a star of the Rice Players, receiving rave reviews for her roles, among others, as Ophelia in Hamlet, Charlotte Corday in Marat/Sade, and Strindberg’s Miss Julie. Her theater success at Rice led to a scholarship to pursue an MFA in theater at the Bob Hope Theater at SMU.

She returned to Seattle in 1971 and made a career course correction, attending University of Puget Sound Law School (now Seattle University Law School) while working full-time as a trust officer in the Seafirst Trust Department. She was one of UPS’s first law graduates in 1975. She was a trust lawyer at Seafirst and then Security Pacific until the mid-90’s at which time she went back to school and obtained an L.L.M. in tax law at the University of Washington Law School. She was a trusts and estates lawyer in private practice thereafter until retiring.

For several years during her retirement, she took on the Herculean, full-time task of taking care of her mother. She also was an amazing and loving aunt to her nephews, Will and John Kenneth. Along the way, she served as a Seattle Art Museum docent, a Japanese Garden docent, a Cedar River “save the sockeye run” volunteer worker, and an elementary school volunteer reading tutor. She loved to travel and was an accomplished gardener with a magnificent rose and dahlia garden to show for it.

Roberta is survived by her brother John Reed, sister-in-law Karen Overstreet, and nephews, Will Reed (Tess) and John Kenneth Reed. 

There will be a private graveside service for Roberta to be scheduled at a later date. Any remembrances should be in the form of donations to the Alvord Brain Tumor Institute at UW Medical Center, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, or the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.