Evelyn Anne Reed (nee Geldmeyer) passed July 21, 2026, at the age of 91 and 3/4. Born September 17, 1934 to Louis and Madeline Geldmeyer in St.Charles, Illinois. All her grandparents arrived from Belgium at the century's turn at Ellis Island and spread out through the Midwest.
She is joining in heaven her parents, brother George, sister Alice Louise (Babe) Eastman, sister Mary Margaret Ritchie, and her second husband Robert D.Reed, as well as having buried many beloved pets who enriched her life. She passed a deep love for animals on to her daughter.
Evelyn is survived by her loving daughter Helen Louise Satterlee and son Dale Scott Satterlee, daughter-in-law Brenda and bonus grandson Roger Votaw of Dekalb, Illinois, and his wife Amy, along with their three children. She has two namesakes, Lynn (Evelyn) Eastman, and Eve Ritchie.
Evelyn grew up in the northern Illinois town of St.
Charles which had become a mecca of sorts for a large population of Belgians, Swedes, and Lithuanians, all employed by Moline Malleable Iron Works.
She met her husband James Dale Satterlee in high school after advancing from her elementary school of St. Patrick's. Her classmate, Helen Joybelle Satterlee talked her into asking her older brother Jim on the autumn hayride, and her life took off. She and Jim married when she graduated in 1952 and joined him in Rhode Island where he was stationed during his service in the Navy. A year later they had a daughter, and 18 months later added a son. They raised their family in Sycamore, Illinois for 20 years where she worked as a bank teller and then school secretary while rearing two kids.
Evelyn worked many years in the Dekalb, Illinois administrative offices of Northern Illinois University before joining her son Dale in Houston, Texas in 1989. Daughter Helen followed the next year, so the core family was reunited. She retired from NASA contractor Wyle Laboratories around 2003 and a few years later moved from her rose-covered Friendswood home to northwest Houston to be near her children.
The Mansions of Hastings Green was her last home and she found many friends there, especially Evie 1 and Carla who kept her smiling. Bingo became a passion for her and helped keep her motivated, she lived alone and still drove her car to the nearby Walmart.
She was a lovely person and will be greatly missed by all who knew her.
