Avis Claudette McAmis Reid born July 19, 1938 in her parents’ home in Kingsport Tennessee. She died in Round Rock TX on April 22,2025. She was 86 years old.
The second child and eldest daughter of Roy and Iva(Hensley)McAmis, she was welcomed with delight by her beloved grandparents George and Lydia McAmis and Eli and Laura Hensley. Growing up in close proximity to both families, she never lacked for playmates and love. Her favorite playmate was her Uncle Jerry McAmis who was born just a few months before she was. Their escapades of climbing the tallest trees they could find or playing in the creek until dark, often led their mothers to despair of them never being more than hoodlums. They once ate so many green apples off of Poppy’s trees that they were sick for days. She idolized her older brother Don, who was the typical rascal older brother. He and his friends once convinced her to let them paint her completely black in enamel paint so she could hide in the dark. Don was in Iva’s bad graces for months after. It took almost a whole can of turpentine and several hours of scrubbing to get Avis clean.
The arrival of little sister Evelyn when Avis was three did not impress her. Avis took her first look at the baby and told her Daddy to send it back because it cried too loud. She was a little more receptive at age six to Wayne’s debute. Nancy came along when she was ten and immediately became “her baby”.
Her dad Roy worked the graveyard shift at Eastman Kodak when Avis was young. He would bring home Tootsie Rolls for her because he knew how much she loved them. His nickname for Avis was “Tootsie”.
One day, when Avis was three years old, she was playing at Roy’s feet while he sat at the table reading the newspaper.
Suddenly he heard her say “Japs Bomb Pearl Harbor”. He looked over his paper in amazement! “Iva, she can READ!” Sure enough, Avis read aloud the giant headliner on Dec 7, 1941.
An avid reader her whole life, Avis loved books and instilled that love of reading in her children.
She was a straight A student from first to twelfth grades. Avis graduated with honors from Sullivan High school in 1956. Her teachers from her years in Sullivan County schools gifted her a wardrobe for her first year at East Tennessee State College (Now known as Eastern Tennessee State University).
Money was tight but her Uncle Howard paid for her first years college tuition. Avis was the first to go to college in her family. She was very popular at ETSC and well liked by professors and fellow students. Her first semester she met Stanley Still, a tall handsome junior who was instantly smitten. Stanley gave Avis his frat pin and six months later he asked her to marry him. They were married the summer of 1957 and a year later they welcomed their first child Janet. Laura and Juliet came in two year increments to complete their family.
People sometimes grow apart, and that’s what happened to Avis and Stan.After the divorce, Avis decided to set out on an adventure and moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida when she got a job as a secretary at a newspaper. An old friend from high school, James Buchanan, was also working there as a reporter. James was a man who loved books and adventure and soon the friendship turned to love. James and Avis were married in 1966 in Nassau, Bahamas. James had just as much wanderlust as Avis and they made their home in Lynchburg, VA (where their Daughter Dokie was born), Plano TX, and Guadalajara, Mexico in the span of five years. On the way back to Tennessee from Texas, the bus stopped in McAllen, where they fell in love with the Rio Grande Valley and decided to stay.
Three more years passed and James became bitter and unhappy. They separated in 1974 and divorced in 1975. Avis moved to South Padre Island to heal and enjoy her children.
One morning, while taking her usual walk along the beach, Avis met a white haired beach bum wanna-be who struck up a conversation. She was nice and thought no more about him. A couple of weeks later, she noticed her children and her poodle talking to the same man and went down to see what was going on. He was helping them build a sandcastle and it turned out his name was Wallace Reid, who was also in retreat from a divorce, and was actually a businessman in real life, not a beach bum. The beach was his happy place.
Wallace asked Avis to marry him for the first time after they had been dating for three months. She refused him because she’d been there and done that. He asked her again a month later and she told him that he shouldn’t want to marry her, because she’d already been married two times; she had children and a dog and he didn’t need to take that on. The third time Wallace asked, he told her, “I love your dog. I love your children. And I love you. I want to marry all of it.” Avis said yes, of course. They were married January 18, 1977. Their son Zachary was born ten months and ten days later.
Avis decided at age 52 to finish her Bachelors degree. To accomplish this she, Wallace and Zac moved back to East Tennessee. Two years later, she graduated Magna Cum Laude from East Tennessee State University with a BA in English Literature and a double minor in Humanities and Spanish.
Avis and her family returned to South Padre Island where she taught ESL and freshman English at Port Isabel High School. Her first ESL students astounded everybody by acing all their standardized tests, and by mainstreaming into regular classes after only one year of ESL classes; a feat that had never happened in the district prior to Avis’ coming.
Avis taught for two more years at the high school then spent her last three years as a teacher at the Laguna Madre Facility for Juveniles. Then Wallace’s death in September 1999 made her want to spend more time with her children, so she retired from teaching. Her last years were spent spending time with her children, friends, and family in Texas, Tennessee and South Carolina.
In her lifetime, Avis not only read voraciously, but could finish the New York Times Sunday crossword in less than 15 minutes. She also played a mean game of Scrabble.Avis loved acting in community theaters and was a member of Camille Playhouse of Brownsville and the Laguna Madre Players of Port Isabel. Her role as the mother in “Butterflies are Free” was well remembered. A lover of music of all genres, our homes and cars were always filled with singing. Avis wrote many short stories and composed poems. She played tennis, golf and loved swimming and fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. Avis hand raised a bull, named River, who thought he was a lap-dog even though he weighed 2,000 lbs. Avis loved all animals, especially her cat Fellini and her very special dogs Nancy, Heidi, and Scotty.
In 2023, Alzheimer’s stole Avis from her family. There were many days when she was in the company of childhood memories and few days when she recognized her children. She spent her last 10 days being loved and upheld by prayers and music so that when she breathed out her last breath, her passing was peaceful.
Avis is preceded in death by her parents, brothers Don and Wayne, her infant son Barry Buchanan, and her husband Wallace Reid. She is survived by her sisters Evelyn and Nancy, her daughters Janet Still Jones (Barry) United Kingdom, Laura Still Knoxville, TN, Juliet Still McMurry (Greg) Mt. Pleasant, SC, Avis Dokie Buchanan-Walker (Jim), Round Rock TX, her son Zachary Reid (Rhonda), Dallas TX. Grandchildren Wylan, Erik, Mirela, and Niklaus Werth, Winston (Sharon) and Brennan (Julie) Sullivan, Kyle (Danielle), Katie and Rachel (Robert) Walker, Kit (Carolyn) McMurry, and Shirley Reid. And two great granddaughters and one great grandson.
A Celebration of Avis’ Life will be held on Her Birthday Saturday July 19, 2025 @10 in the morning at Saint Richard’s Episcopal Church of Round Rock
1420 East Palm Valley Blvd Round Rock TX 78664. A reception in the Parish Hall will follow the interment of her ashes immediately after. Please feel free to donate to your favorite charity in her memory.