Della Reeder

Della Reeder, 77 of Pahrump, Nev., and formerly of La Grande, died Sept. 17. A family memorial service is planned in Pahrump Saturday.

Mrs. Reeder was born to Bertha Gandy on Jan. 27, 1929, in Idaho. Her father died very early and she was raised by a stepfather, Wayne Gillis.

Mrs. Reeder went to first grade in La Grande, but grew up in Summerville. Her family remembers that the man who would be her husband, Jay Reeder, proposed to her in third grade.

She married Jay Reeder on May 16, 1945. The coupled lived in La Grande until 1965 when they moved to California and later to Pahrump to escape the city congestion in California. She was an avid Dodgers fan.

Survivors include her husband of Pahrump; children, Steve, Vernon and Virgil; a brother Gene Gillis of La Grande; 13 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. A son, Rodney; a daughter, Janice and a sister, Juanita Allen, all died earlier.