Edith Laverne (Reese) Sewell, Ph.D.

Edith Laverne (Reese) Sewell, Ph.D. passed away peacefully at age 80 on Wednesday, April 3, 2024.

 

Dr. Sewell was born in West Plains, Missouri. She ultimately received her Masters and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Memphis, where she met and married her second husband, William R. Sewell, and gave birth to their son, Shaun.

 

During her graduate studies, she launched the Wife Abuse Crisis Center and later spoke often about the kind of vitriol she received. She worked for many years at the Veterans Administration Medical Center. During her last days, she spoke fondly and often of the veterans she worked with, who called her Doctor Edie and who served as a marketing team of sorts, finding other veterans in the canteen who might benefit from her services and letting them know that she understood their issues and could help. She also partnered with Drs. Connie Paul and Jane Scott Cox in the Memphis Center for Women & Families.

 

In the early 2000s, she returned to West Plains and worked for Ozarks Medical Center for the remainder of her career. She and Carlissa Gilliam were responsible for the multi-million dollar grant from the Missouri Department of Mental Health which launched OMC’s Behavioral Health Center. As the clinical director, she helped lead the team in the creation of services still in existence today, including day treatment and crisis intervention.

 

After retiring around 2009, she moved to Las Vegas in 2012 to live with her son and his husband. She enjoyed going to libraries to further her lifelong love affair with books, and traveling to national parks around the area, including her favorite–Zion. She often told her son that she moved to Las Vegas to see the mountains that ring the valley.

 

Her mother, Mabel Ann (Carr) Reese, and father, Cotton Reese, predeceased her, as did her brother, James Reese, sister Barbara Jean Buchan, sister Patricia “Patsy” Ann Williams, and brother-in-law Robert Williams. She is survived by her son, Shaun Franklin-Sewell, and his husband, Ric; her youngest sister, Jennifer Lynn (Reese) Capitumino and brother-in-law Nicholas; nieces and nephews Cathy (Williams) Wood; Cindy (Williams) Weeks with husband Greg; Michael Buchan with wife Beth; Charles “Chuck” Buchan with wife Lisa; Angel Capitumino; and Nicole Capitumino with wife Flo Kane; great-nephews and nieces Scott Brown with wife Krystal and daughters Reese & Riley; Rob Brown with daughter Sydney and son Griffin; Devin Cravens with husband Ben and sons Chace and Abraham; Cody Weeks with wife Beth and daughter Allie; Bryan Buchan with wife Michelle and daughters Anna and Carter; Christopher Buchan; Kevin Buchan; Kaitlyn Waker with husband Conner, Josh Buchan, Matt Buchan, Lauren Malone with husband Zack, and Zach Buchan.

 

The family will host a celebration of life in the West Plains Senior Center (416 E. Main St. in West Plains) at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 27. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Christos House or your local womens’ and childrens’ shelter or veterans service organization.