Harvey Day was Reed's second husband and, according to those who knew her best, the great love of her life. Her first husband, Harry Lindgren, was regarded as Hollywood's premier sound engineer when the two married in 1939. The marriage produced two children; a daughter, Judy, in 1940 and a son, Steve, in 1944. However by 1945 the two were divorced and Reed went from a large home in the Hollywood Hills to living in rustic shacks in the Southwestern deserts and mountains over the next several years. By 1946 she had hooked up with Day, an itinerant ranch hand who was in and out of prison numerous times for crimes ranging from forged checks to auto theft. He committed suicide in 1952 while an inmate at the Montana State Prison. In 1955 she married Lynn Molgard, Day's brother in law, and the two operated mink ranches in Colorado for the next year. After divorcing Molgard one year later she returned to Julian, California where she created both her Harvey Day and California Butterfield series over the next two years. Shortly thereafter she met her fourth husband, Cecil Creese. Reed's marriage to Creese lasted over twenty years, more than twice as long as her first three combined. Although he may not have been the great love of her life a la Harvey Day, he helped provide a stability that had been missing for most of her adult life. Creese was a prospector and mining engineer, and the pair lived in various areas throughout the West, including the Salmon River in northern California and Arivaca and Amado in southern Arizona. The union ended with his death in Tombstone, Arizona in 1978.
In the early 1970’s Valley Bank in Arizona commissioned her to do a series of paintings on the Trading Posts of Arizona. Not long afterwards a private collector commissioned her to do a series of nine paintings with Hopi scenes in the Three Mesas area. In addition to the original Butterfield paintings she did hundreds more of both Butterfield and other stage scenes.
Reed claimed to have moved over eighty times in her life, spending most of her years in Arizona and Southern California. Her longest stay in one place was in the Tombstone area, where she owned and operated the Old Adobe Gallery in the 1980’s and early 90's. Located in an original 1880's adobe building the gallery had no running water or electricity, but the ambiance provided the ideal setting for her work. The Old Adobe was open on weekends only. By now Reed's popularity was at its peak. Frequently the gallery was sold out by early Saturday afternoon. She also provided free art lessons to local children on Sunday nights, held by candlelight while a mesquite fire roared in the fireplace.
After her marriage to Cecil Creese, Reed converted to Catholicism and became deeply religious, at times becoming almost fanatical in her devotion. She frequently said that she “never painted anything. I just held the brush and God did the work.” She also claimed her art was inspired largely by the frustration she felt in being denied a ranching life. By "returning the gift of the Creator”, the pleasure experienced by those who enjoyed her work then helped to alleviate her frustration.
After Cecil Creese's death Reed made eleven trips to Israel, which she always referred to as "The Holy Land", during the 1980's. Her last trip occurred in 1988, when she was deported by the Israeli government for encouraging peaceful protests by the Palestinians.
Reed died while raking leaves the Friday after Thanksgiving in 1996 at the old Campbell Ranch in Vallecito. Not far from Vallecito is La Casa Del Zorro resort in Borrego Springs, where many of the original Butterfield California paintings purchased by the Copley family hung on permanent exhibit from 1970 until late 2007, when the resort was sold. The appeal endures to this day as the value of her work has steadily risen in the years since her death.
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Leaving Before the Storm-Widow Smiths
24 x 30 Oil on Canvas Circa 1978
Winter in Navajoland
30 x 40 Oil on Canvas Circa 1982