Donna Reid

Donna Jeanne Hafdell Gabel Reid

April 14 1926-September 25 2025

Donna’s arrival on April 14 of 1926 broke her family’s streak of boys when she became the fourth child of Frans (Frank) Emanuel and Hazel Gray Hafdell in Lincoln Nebraska. Alas the inclusion of a girl into this marriage was not enough to make it whole and by the age of four Hazel took Donna to Denver Colorado where she divorced Frank. She grew in the mile-high city, relishing the quarters her mother gave her, which she invested in tamales, and trolley rides to visit her sisters-in-law Virgie and Fern. There she made lifelong friends with Arlene Levinson while her brother George taught her the Jitterbug and took her camping in the mountains. Around the age of 13, during her summer visit with her father and her stepmother Nora Feezer Hafdell, she decided to stay in Lincoln. She attended Whittier Junior High before moving on to Lincoln High where she graduated in 1944 with a focus in stenography.

Her transition into adulthood arrived when two young men approached Donna and her friend Smitty Rank as they walked to choir practice at Second Presbyterian Church. The young men worked their lines but Donna wasn’t having it. Her eventual husband, Lansing Gabel, tried to impress this beautiful young woman with a story about his adventures in Denver where he claimed he just visited. This was an unfortunate choice as he had not been in the city Donna knew like the back of her hand. Despite this early misstep, her pick of suitors and her own family’s disapproval, she married Lance on February 14, 1945. The young couple moved to Washington D.C. where the Army stationed him. Donna explored the capital during wartime, and they shared a small apartment with four other couples claiming the kitchen as their first bedroom.

Once they returned to Lincoln after the war, the couple welcomed daughters Susan, Cindy and later Lana into their modest home. Never one to sit idle, Donna worked for the Adjutant General, putting her stenographic skills to use transcribing Nebraska Legislative sessions and planning the annual Postal Wives Auxiliary Christmas party for Lance’s co-workers, and their families. At home her culinary skills and crafty as all get out ways kept everyone well fed, clothed, and decorated. One of her proudest moments came in 1959 when at union meeting she shook the hand of presidential hopeful, John F. Kennedy.

When it came to dressing, Donna could hold her own even with Jackie Kennedy as she had a keen eye for fashion and how to make every penny stretch in her pursuit of style. She was well known at Miller and Paine and eventually Dillards where annual clearance events were like her Super Bowl. She was always put together and had the closets to prove it. She worked hard and saved even harder. Her early childhood with her mother in Denver with its deprivations made her hungry for the best she could afford but always at a discount. When not bargain hunting she was looking for the best rate on CDs and sound investments as informed by her childhood during the Great Depression and the scarcity of the war years.

Her last career was as a switchboard operator at Bryan East Hospital where she met Lester Reid. Les was the love of her life and she left her complicated marriage with Lance to be with him. They married in 1984 and traveled the United States as much as possible, enjoying everything along the way. Favorite places included the Wisconsin Dells, New York City, and their garden at home. When he died in 2001, she began her discipline of walking at Gateway mall for fitness and being on the frontlines of her next bargain. Later she met Bob Adkisson who she dated until his death in 2008, refusing his proposal of marriage, as she didn’t have it in her to bury another husband. In her last years before the pandemic, she traveled frequently to California, scouring flea markets for treasures to take home and enjoying time at the beach.

After a long and busy life she died as she lived, honored, trusted and loved. She leaves behind her daughters, numerous grand and great grandchildren, and her beloved and faithful Chihuahua Carmel. She will be dearly missed as they don’t make ladies like her anymore. No public service as was her wish. Memorials to Disabled Veterans.