Diana Reeder Scott

Diana Griswold Reeder Scott of Lawrence and formerly of Fort Leavenworth, died August 6th, 2012.  She was born March 31, 1923 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Stanley F. Griswold and Estelle Leary Griswold.  Among her favorite memories were her boarding school years at St. Mary’s Hall in Faribault, Minnesota, her Army brat friends from her youth, especially at the Presidio in San Francisco, her Kappa Alpha Theta sisters at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, and the years she attended the “hops” at the USMA at West Point. She married Harry L. Reeder, Jr. in 1943 after he graduated from the Academy. She had first met Harry in 1935 when both their fathers were stationed in Panama.
 
As an Army brat and Army wife, Diana resided throughout the contiguous United States as well as in Hawaii, Germany, Panama, and Colombia.  She devoted countless hours to volunteer work. She wrote a weekly column, “From the Fort” for the Leavenworth Times, was a member of Daughters of the United States Army and Kappa Alpha Theta, volunteered at veterinary clinics, Cub Scouts, and the Officers’ Wives Clubs and Red Cross at every post where she lived including at the Naval War College and in Bogota, Colombia where the Gray Ladies were referred to as Pink Ladies. She served with the Sisters of Charity at Saint Mary’s College and volunteered for English as a Second Language, both in Leavenworth. Diana loved dogs and was Honorary Midwife to the Hounds at the Fort Leavenworth Hunt.  Ever self depreciating, she was embarrassed to be honored as a recipient of the Paul Harris Fellow, claiming that the only important thing she’d ever done was “nurture Harry.” She also enjoyed quilting, cartooning, painting portraits, horseback riding, and playing tennis and bridge.

Diana could always appreciate the ridiculous in any situation and entertained family and friends with her uniquely humorous perspective. Typically stoic, when she lost her eyesight in later years and was forced to give up reading, completing the NY Times crossword puzzles (in ink!) and playing bridge, she lamented that she had to stop playing bridge because she could no longer see her partners’ expressions across the bridge table to figure out what cards they held.  Fittingly, among her notes were a few words she had paraphrased and entitled, “From Sir Walter Scott and Me – Nature has given me a kind of buoyancy that mingles even with my deepest afflictions and most gloomy hours.  I have a secret pride which impels me to mix with my distresses, strange fragments of mirth.”
 
She was predeceased by her parents Col. And Mrs. Stanley F. Griswold, parents in law Col. And Mrs. Harry L. Reeder, her husband Col. Harry L. Reeder, Jr., her high school sweetheart Richard P. Scott whom she married when they were reunited after fifty two years, son Harry L. Reeder III, grandson Richard Dale Taylor, Jr., brother and sister in law, Col. Boyd F. and Betsy Reeder and their daughter, her niece, Betsy Reeder, as well as special friends from Leavenworth Lois McRill, Sally Kobbe, MaryLee Jenkins, and Barbara Quick.  

She is survived by her daughter Margaret  F. Reeder of Lawrence, Kansas, daughter Susan R. Taylor and her husband Robert A. Wolfgang of Knox,  Maine, son Stanley G. Reeder and his wife Elizabeth Kress Reeder of Boca de Tomatlan and Paracho, Mexico, daughter-in-law Cathleen M. Reeder of Westcliffe, Colorado, five grandchildren, Emily Reeder Malsbury and her husband Craig Malsbury of Oskaloosa, Kansas, Angela Reeder Pettit and her husband Danny of Tacoma, Washington,  Eliott Reeder and his fiancée Amanda Berger of Lawrence Kansas, Jason Taylor and his wife Saundra of Atlanta, Georgia,  Katherine Taylor and her husband David Hooper of Norwich,  Connecticut, nine great grandchildren including her namesake Diana Malsbury, and one great great grandchild as well as all of the members of her various bridge clubs.
    
A memorial service will take place Thursday at 5:30 pm, August 9, 2012 at the Warren-McElwain Mortuary in Lawrence.  An additional service will be held August 10th, at 9:00 am, at the old Fort Leavenworth Chapel. A private graveside service for the family will follow at the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the Salvation Army or to the Lawrence Humane Society.