Lafern Aldean Reed

On Friday, Dec. 11, 2015, God gained another angel. Lafern Aldean (Fuhrmann) Reed, 89, joined her Lord and Savior in Heaven. She will be laid to rest on Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015, at Highland Cemetery in Glasgow.

A service will be held at Bell Mortuary at 11 a.m. with luncheon to follow at 12 p.m. at the Glasgow VFW. A remembrance service will be held next summer. The date will be announced at a later time.

She was born Nov. 10, 1926, on their homestead north of Glasgow. She was the fifth of 12 children born to Fred and Dorothy Fuhrmann. She attended school at the South Fuhrmann School and then completed her high school graduation at Glasgow High School. Her work career started early with baby sitting, house cleaning, and any odd job that presented itself.

At 18, after graduating from high school, she went to California to live with her sister, Vesta, and worked in the Stockton shipyard during World War II. She was chosen to be part of a War Bond Program and was in a beauty pageant selling war bonds. There she started writing to her brother Hank's best friend, Gayle Jones, and two years later they were married in Bakersfield, Calif. They had three children, Gaydean Jones Wallace, Donalee Jones and Gayle Dorn Jones Jr. After 14 years, the marriage ended and Lafern went to work at various jobs while raising the children and attending college. She worked her way up to controller of a prestigious legal firm in Bakersfield. During this time she met and married Jack Reed and her family grew to include her stepson, Morgan Stewart and family. They enjoyed 30 years together.

After retirement, she and Jack enjoyed many years traveling and visiting friends and family. Upon his passing, she spent time with each of her children and at her home in St Marie.

She assisted her cousin, Adeline, with different projects and her church kept her active until 2014 when complications from her 27-year battle with severe diabetes resulted in her moving to a nursing facility for extensive medical care. Her family kept constant watch over her.

Her Lord, family, singing, dancing, playing cards, gardening and writing poetry were her passions and she was the tops at each. She loved to cook, and like her mama, she shared with whomever was around. In Glasgow she attended the First Baptist Church and in California attended church in Bakersfield, Mariposa and Tollhouse where she stayed with her children. She didn't have an enemy and loved life to the fullest.

She was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Jack Reed; six brothers, Roy, Hank, Cletus, Donnie, Robert, and Gary; and three sisters, Judy, Vesta and Agnes.

Survivors include a brother, Jerome Fuhrmann and his wife, Phyllis, of Othello, Wash .; a sister, Betty Watson and her husband, Dave, of Glasgow; three children, Gaydean Wallace and her husband, Frank, of Mariposa, Calif., Donalee Townsend of Tollhouse, Calif., and Gayle Jones Jr and his wife, Vicki, of Bakersfield, Calif .; a stepson, Morgan Stewart and his wife, Linda, of Bakersfield; 12 grandchildren; 21 great-grandchildren; nine great-great-grandchildren; and scores of friends and loved ones.

She was a beloved mother, grand, great and great-great-grandmother, wife, sister, and friend. She opened her heart and her home to all. Lafern, you were deeply loved and will be greatly missed.