Notable KU alumna Marynell Reece dies at 96, instilled in daughters that ‘opportunities were limitless’

“She was way ahead of her time in terms of thinking that women should take advantage of every opportunity, that the opportunities were limitless,” daughter Deanell Reece Tacha said. “She was a very effective cheerleader for all of us.”

Reece, a 2007 inductee into KU’s Emily Taylor Center for Women and Gender Equity Hall of Fame, died Monday at age 96, Tacha said. Services are planned for 10 a.m. Saturday at Scandia United Methodist Church in Scandia, where Reece lived.

Tacha, chair of KU Endowment’s Board of Trustees and former chief judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, survives Reece, along with Reece’s three other daughters: Saralyn Reece Hardy, director of KU’s Spencer Museum of Art; Jane Ann Ewy; and Mary Lou Reece.

At KU, Reece majored in journalism, was a member of Gamma Phi Beta sorority and was involved with the University Daily Kansan, homecoming, International Student Exchange and various other activities, according to her Emily Taylor Center Hall of Fame biography.

Later in life Reece served KU’s Elizabeth Miller Watkins Society, KU Endowment as a trustee emeritus, Jayhawks for Higher Education lobbying state legislators on behalf of KU, and on the Advisory Council on Education as well as the Fund for the Improvement of Secondary Education, according to the Emily Taylor Center. She received KU’s Fred Ellsworth Medallion in 1978 and the Distinguished Service Citation in 1993.

She worked in the family business, Reece Construction, with her late husband and fellow KU alumnus, Bill Reece, and also was highly involved in the Republican Party, including as the National Republican Committee chairwoman from Kansas.

The couple were lifelong KU fans, and Marynell Reece even attended all the KU men’s basketball games last year, Tacha said.

“They remained just totally loyal Jayhawks,” Tacha said.