Terri Ann Reed Obituary
Former Lancaster County resident Terri Ann Reed, age 73, died November 19, 2024, from cancer, at her sister’s home in Haymarket, VA. Her parents, Benjamin Greenly Shank and Alma Strickler Longenecker, predeceased her in 2022. She is survived by her older sister, Vicki Jo Shank along with her husband Barry Harlan, a nephew William Michael Kemp Jr. along with his wife Amanda and their toddler son William Mason Kemp. She will be sorely missed by a host of long-time friends.
The family would like to express their gratitude to the Heartland Hospice care team for their compassion and support during Terri's final days.
A grave-side service and burial will be at Bossler’s Mennonite Church in Elizabethtown, tentative set for Spring of 2025. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to your favorite charity.
Terri was born at Lancaster General Hospital on October 14, 1951, immediately after a long drive from Elizabethtown which her mother encouraged her dad to drive faster. Although she and her sister worked on the family poultry farm, on Bainbridge Road, the girls also managed to work as waitresses at the Alleghany Building, Masonic Village on weekends and holidays. Her youth days were surrounded with music, particularly learning to play the piano and the drums which led her as a member of the high school’s marching band; swimming at the community pool; gymnastics; baton twirling; 4-H projects; and occasionally playing ping pong in the basement of the home. Her love for animals began on the farm with dozens of outdoor cats and kittens, a dog, a rabbit, and a parakeet. One time, she sneaked a cat into her bedroom, only to be caught by her mother. She attended the Elizabethtown Area High School and graduated with the Class of 1969.
After earning a B. S. degree in Home Economics from Messiah College in May 1973, she continued to earn a second bachelor’s degree in Multi-Media Journalism and a Master of Arts degree in American Studies in December 1982 both from The Pennsylvania State University. The title of her graduate thesis was “The Effect of World War II on the Role and Status of American Women, As Reflected in Advertisements in The Saturday Evening Post.”
She was employed by the State ‘s Department of Education in Harrisburg , PA for about 10 years before heading south to Key West, FLA. Found employment as a waitress at Mangrove Mama’s Restaurant on Sugarloaf Island for five months. She washed the dishes and made salad for the customers, four days a week, so she could get free supper cooked up by their chef. By 1990, she moved westward and got a stint to work the crop fields with a massive combine harvester machine in MidWest USA. She then settled and purchased a small cottage at the Piney Woods of East Texas, near Huntsville, Texas. Her devoted companion was a dog, by the name of Bella as well as her three horses JC, Jet, and Topy. Her life was richly full with new Texas friends she adorned, working as an Investigative Assistant for Texas’ Dept of Corrections and eventually transferred to ICE, a bureau under the Federal Department of Homeland Security at Huntsville, and taking hikes and walks around Lake Livingston.
She retired from federal employment in 2010. She roamed around the country, Canada, a Caribbean Island, and France to pet-sit; ranch cattle, horses, chickens, dogs, and cats. She then traveled to Canada and USA in her customized van, nicknamed La Lair. In the summer of 2018, she traveled with her sister, Vicki, for three and half months to Iceland, Germany, Austria (biked over 180 miles on the Danube River Cycle Trail), Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Bulgaria and Poland. By 2019, she sold her Texas cottage and bought a lot in the foothills of the Appalachian Mt range in southwestern Virginia. The COVID years have stalled her housebuilding project and at the time of death, her own customized house was ready to be moved in. Her interests were SCUBA, lap swimming, bicycling, paddling kayak, traveling, horseback riding and hiking. She had a blogspot detailing her adventurous journey La Lair On Wheels which she shared with her fans, family, and friends. https://lalaironwheels.blogspot.com
