Annette Reid Nolan, born 11/23/38, deceased 1/23/22.
Daughter of Rev. Milton Prentiss Reid (d 1989) and Myra W. Phelps (d 1941), stepdaughter of Eleanor Reid (d 2013); sister of Cameron Reid (d 2018), Milton Prentiss Reid II, Judith Reid MD, David Reid. Beloved wife of Philip Nolan (d 2019), mother of Kisten Devine Nolan and Verdant (Philip Ravia Reid) Nolan (married to Jeanne Pinsof Nolan). Grandmother of Nicholas Philip Laughton (10), Kye (Kisten Leslie) Nolan (14), Thea Day Atkins (20), Kendall Brinkley Laughton (22). Aunt to many beloved nieces and nephews.
Annette was born in Fort Smith, AK. While her early years were spent in Oklahoma, once Reverend Reid returned from the Navy, he married Eleanor Reid and the couple raised their 5 children together across Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee – wherever he was called to serve in his capacity as a Prebstyterian minister. She was smart, athletic (basketball), played piano in Church and won a Virginia state wide singing contest performing September Song; she was crowned Homecoming Queen her senior year of high school. As a young woman Annette lived in Richmond VA and worked at the Bank of Richmond, then pivoted to nursing school at Birmingham Baptist Hospital in Alabama. There she met her husband and together they participated in the civil rights movement. After they married, the couple moved to Chicago, IL around 1966. While she once thought she’d study midwifery and join the Appalachian rural health service, upon leaving the South she found her calling in psychiatry. Annette worked first as a psychiatric nurse at Michael Reese Hospital then accepted a Nurse Manager position on a psychiatric-substance use inpatient unit at Hines VA Medical Center. In her spare time, she earned a Bachelor’s of Arts from St. Xavier University in Art History, as art was one of her passions. Once retired, the couple moved to the family home in Waupaca, WI. To say she was an avid reader simply does not capture her long-term relationship with local librarians and the tenderly worn books shelved and stacked all throughout the family home. She also loved bird watching, action movies, football, koi ponds, driving fast, gardening, cooking Indian and Mexican dinners, the Sugar Hill Gang, advocating for the Democrats, MSNBC, Stephen Colbert, watching dolphins swim the Atlantic from her porch perch in Kitty Hawk, NC. A more accepting, loving ear for one’s personal crisis, struggle or story there never was. Annette was an informal therapist to many from the privacy and warmth of her kitchen table. Annette died peacefully in Oak Park, IL in home hospice; her children were at her side holding her hands as she gently left this place to join her husband in a long awaited embrace.
A celebration of life is planned for July 30th at 2:30 pm in their Waupaca, WI home. All are welcome.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to an organization/cause she felt passionately about, Planned Parenthood.