Reed

Katharine Axe Reed, 85, of Slippery Rock died at 10:23 p.m. Thursday at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

Born June 14, 1924, in New Castle, she was the daughter of David Wilson and Katharine Jane Johnston Axe

She married Russell Alvin Reed Aug. 10, 1951, and he died May 10, 1995.

She was a member of Highland Presbyterian Church in Slippery Rock.

She graduated with a bachelor's degree in education and Spanish from Geneva College, Beaver Falls.

She received her master's degree in education at the University of Pittsburgh. She taught kindergarten in Bradford. Later, she taught in New Kensington, Emlenton and Reading. From 1968 to 1972, she taught in a one-room schoolhouse in Browns Chapel in rural Pennsylvania while commuting from Morgantown, W.Va. She then took chemistry classes and went to work as a lab assistant at the chemistry lab at Berk's Campus, Penn State University.

She was a great seamstress and enjoyed doing puzzles and playing games with her grandchildren. She enjoyed taking them to their many activities including horseback riding, fencing and gymnastics. She enjoyed travel, had a wonderful laugh and loved to serve.

Surviving are two daughters, Eleanor Beth and her husband, Nickolai Dulin of Itasca, Ill., and Rebecca Ann Reed of Itasca, Ill.; a sister, Martha and her husband, Edgar Beckman of Show Low, Ariz.; and four grandchildren, John Russell Dulin, Daniel James Reese, Katharine Ashley Dulin and Nikita N. Dulin.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husband; a daughter, Katharine Jane Reese; and two brothers, Donald James Axe and David Clair Axe.

<B>REED</B> — The family of Katharine Axe Reed, who died Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009, will receive friends from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Thursday at the <B>Smith Funeral Home,</B> 421 New Castle St., Slippery Rock. The service will begin at 2:30 p.m.Interment will be in Slippery Rock Cemetery, Slippery Rock Township.