Sussex-Greensville County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Reese, M. Blanche Short, 1987 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ MARY BLANCHE SHORT REESE MRS. THOMAS REESE DIES, ACTIVE IN COMMUNITY AND STATE ORGANIZATIONS Mrs. Blanche Short Reese, 88, of Wakefield, died Thursday, Mar. 19, 1987, in the East Pavillion of Southampton Memorial Hospital, Franklin. She was born in Purdy, Greensville County, and was the daughter of the late Richard Henry Short and Mary Sue Green Short. She was the widow of Thomas Emmett Reese. She graduated from Greensville County High School in 1916 and received her teacher’s certificate in 1918 from Farmville Female Norman School, now Longwood College, and studied further at the University of Virginia and Columbia University in New York. She was a teacher at Homeville High School, 1919-1919, principal of Purdy Junior High School, 1919-1926, and teacher at Wakefield High School, 1944- 1945, and 1946-1947. She was acting Headmistress of Tidewater Academy when it was organized in 1964 and continued teaching there until 1972. In her early years, she was a piano teacher in Purdy, member of the Emporia Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, the Emporia Music Club and the Sussex County Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. In 1934- 1935, she served as assistance supervisor of the garden program for the Virginia Emergency Relief Administration in Rehabilitation in both Greensville and Sussex counties. She was WMU Superintendent of the Petersburg Baptist Association, 1922-1926, a position she held again, 1950-1957. She was a member of Wakefield Baptist Church where she had served as WMU President and as the teacher of the Reese Bible Class, named for her. She served on the Board of Director for the Wakefield Education Association and delivered the Dedication Address when the Wakefield Community Center was dedicated in September 1954. She was a member of the Thomas Rolfe Branch of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. She served as the Sussex County representative on the first Board of Directors of the Patrick Henry Hospital in Newport News, the only women of the board at that time. She had served as president of the Sussex County Parent-Teacher Association, president of the Sussex County Tuberculosis Association, president of the Wakefield Woman’s Club, president of the Southside District of the Virginia Federation of Women’s Clubs, and president of the Virginia State Art Alliance. She served as the State Chairman of the Fine Arts Department of the VFWC and during her five years as chairman, she initiated the first exhibition of paintings by Virginia club women at the state convention. This exhibition of all types of arts and crafts continues today at the spring district meetings and state conventions. She later became the State Chairmen of the Home Live Department of the VFWC and under her direction, this department was awarded second place in the United States in Home Live work at the General Federation of Women’s Club Convention in Washington, D.C. in 1962. She was a member of the Board of Directors of the Virginia Tuberculosis Association for 14 years. She served as an invited member of the Committee on Health and Recreation of the Governor’s commission on the Status of Women in 1965, and was on the Membership committee of this group when it later became known as the Citizens’ Committee on the Status of Women in Virginia in 1967. She was the Southside Sub-Regional Chairman of Virginia Region II of The 1970 White House Conference on Children and Youth. During the celebration of the 300th anniversary of Sussex County, she was listed among the "Outstanding Women of Sussex County." Her biography appears in Virginia Lives, the Old Dominion’s Who’s Who 1964. Survivors include two daughters, Mrs. Anne R. Carson of Franklin and Mrs. May Sue R. Glasco of Virginia Beach; one son, Thomas Edwin Reese of Virginia Beach; seven grandchildren; four nieces; and three nephews. A funeral service was conducted Sunday, Mar. 22, in the Purviance Funeral Chapel Wakefield, with the Rev. Parker Hooper and the Rev. Douglas Cotter officiating. Burial followed in the Wakefield Cemetery. Memorial donations may be made to the Blanche S. Reese Memorial fund of Wakefield Baptist Church. Mary Blanche (SHORT; Mrs. Thomas Emmett) REESE, civic leader, former teacher, b. 1 Dec 1898, Purdy, Greensville Co., d. 19 Mar 1987, Franklin, interred in Wakefield Cemetery*, 22 Mar 1987, Purviance Funeral Home obit *Wakefield list, an extension of the Southampton County Historical Society {SCHS} Cemetery Project: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/sussex/cemeteries/wakefd.txt Her husband is marked with her, but D.Cert. 80-024343 states that his body was donated to the State Anatomical Dept. His obit (Purviance Funeral Home, 1980) states it was willed to the Eastern Medical School; file at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/sussex/obits/r200t1ob.txt Her father's D.Cert. 1918-17101 gives bu. in Owen Burial Ground. Her mother's D.Cert. 1936-19679 gives bu. in Purdy. Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Mrs. Bruce Saunders (bs4403@verizon.net), and re-formatted by File Manager. file at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/sussex/obits/r200b4ob.txt