Fredda Jo Reed

May 7, 2020

CHARLOTTE – Fredda Jo Reed was born to C.A. and Fredda Moore in Apalachicola, Florida, and subsequently grew up in Medina, Bandera, and Fort Worth, Texas. A graduate of Lake Worth High School (1954) and Texas Wesleyan College (1958), where she studied music, she married Louis B. Reed of Fort Worth in 1958 and proceeded to a career in music education and church music along with raising three children.
During the course of her life she has lived variously in Florida, Texas, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, North Carolina and England, and finally at Aldersgate Retirement Community in Charlotte during a prolonged illness.

As a musician she was a clarinetist, singer, and choral director with a diverse love for symphonic and chamber music, opera, and cowboy songs. Later in life she administered senior adult life enrichment programs in Jacksonville and Charlotte. A homemaker of necessity more than choice, she most enjoyed making tamales with her daughters, travel and playing with her cats. Following retirement, she confessed that, if she had been granted a do-over, she would have studied clarinet in a graduate music conservatory and played in a symphony orchestra.

She preferred to be called Jodi in honor of her grandmother. Wearing that identity, she was playful, iconoclastic, determined, and a creative spirit - "an original", as one of her friends labeled her. Deeply loyal, her character was most defined by fierce determination to make the best of her circumstances, a trait which sustained her through her decline into dementia. Prior to her final residence in Aldersgate's Memory Support facility she undertook the practice of needlework and loom weaving, followed by beginning to learn Celtic harp.

Jodi is survived by her husband, daughter Laura of Portland OR, son Russ of Chapel Hill NC, grandsons Ian and Cameron of Chapel Hill, brothers Cary of Arlington TX and Ron of New York NY, and countless friends scattered across the country, England and Australia. Her daughter Jennifer was deceased in 2015.

Arrangements to celebrate Jodi's life are pending.

Arrangements are in the care of Kenneth W. Poe Funeral & Cremation Service, 1321 Berkeley Ave., Charlotte, NC 28204; (704) 641-7606. Online condolences can be shared at www.kennethpoeservices.com.

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  • Linda Pruitt

    My sister, Kathy Harris, was also in the memory care center at Aldersgate. I am so very sorry to hear of Jodi’s passing, and will remember Louis and the family in my prayers. I loved Jodi and was always delighted when she would attend the various music gatherings at Aldersgate because I knew she loved music and I felt that it gave her peace. Louis, you have been a loving and supportive husband to Jodi and the bright spot in her days. Thank you for always taking time to speak to Kathy and offering kind and encouraging words whenever we saw you. RIP sweet Jodi.

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