Malvin Bruce Reed

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Malvin Bruce Reed on June 6, at the age of 90, in Waco, Texas. Bruce was greatly beloved by friends, family, and frankly everyone who was blessed to know him. He will indeed be greatly missed.

Bruce was born on April 7, 1935, near Moody, Texas, to Lloyd E. and Annie D. Reed. He and his three brothers grew up around Waco where his father was a sharecropper. He joined the U.S. Navy at the age of 17. His 22 years of career in the Navy included dozens of shakedown cruises and four long deployments during his tours of sea duty on the USS Princeton, USS Lexington, USS Intrepid, and the USS Hancock. He was stationed in California, Washington, Virginia, Okinawa, and Texas.

He married Jeanette Von Hoven in 1958. He embraced the responsibility of his new family which included Jeanette and her two daughters, Rona and Jeaneale. Ardis was born in 1960. Together they moved around the world following orders in his naval career. Coming back to the states, he was stationed in Beeville, Texas, where he retired from his Navy career in 1975.

After his retirement, he continued to work as a diesel mechanic in Odessa, and a quality assurance officer in San Antonio for a company that built giant rock saws. He supervised projects in Saudi Arabia and Oman for that company. While living in San Antonio for 26 years, he bought property outside of Aquilla and began to raise cattle.

Bruce and Jeanette moved back to his hometown, Waco, in 2005, Jeanette passed away in 2007, and Bruce lived independently for 18 years, maintaining his home, his little ranch, socializing with friends and family, and taking the occasional trip to the casino to test his luck at blackjack.

Bruce was preceded in death by his wife of 48 years, Edith Jeanette Reed, his stepdaughters Rona Sisson and Jeaneale Hurley, and his three brothers, Clayton Stanley Reed, Lloyd Ernest Reed, and John Kenneth (Jack) Reed.

Bruce is survived by his sisters-in-law Dixie Lee Reed and Shirley Ann Reed. He had many beloved nieces and nephews as well. He is also survived by his daughter, Ardis Hawkins, her husband Randy, and his four granddaughters: Shannon Carufe, and her husband Tony Carufe, Melanie Martin, married to Evan Martin, Bonnie Cave, married to Tyler Cave, and Meredith McCurry, married to Marshall McCurry. He had nine great-grandchildren: Vivian and Jack Carufe, Ellis, Cora, Miles, and June Martin, Daphne and Marlowe Cave, and Murphy McCurry.