Cathy Marie Akins Reas

Cathy Marie Akins Reas, 71, of Huntsville, passed away Saturday, November 8, 2025. Cathy was born January 14, 1954, at the Larue County Clinic in Hodgenville, KY to Marvin Ray Akins and Charline Lawson Akins. She was the oldest of three siblings, the big sister to Cindy (Linder), Christy (Bennett) and Mark Akins. As much as she travelled and moved around, a big part of her heart was always back in Kentucky around Hardin County and Elizabethtown where she grew up. Having spent most of her childhood on a farm, she was a country girl at heart and embraced the life and especially the friends that shared a rural community around a (then) small town. The parts of farm life that weren't so much fun, like counting the cows every day no matter the weather taught her many lessons that stayed with her for the rest of her life.
During her school years she liked to participate in lots of school activities including softball and cheerleading but especially singing. She and her sisters, accompanied by their mother, were a popular singing trio, performing at churches, county fairs, and the Kentucky State Fair. She also sang with school groups, the youth choir (at Mt. Zion Baptist Church) and played the piano, although not as well as she always claimed she would like to. Cathy graduated from West Hardin High School in the Class of 1972. Although she lived other places beginning soon after graduation, she stayed in close touch with many of her school friends and wanted to be at all the reunions she could, even helping to plan the events by long distance whenever possible. During those school years, Cathy knew a boy who also went to West Hardin and whose family were also members at Mt. Zion. He also happened to take piano lessons from her mother. They even played a duet together at a recital. That's how Cathy Akins became Cathy Reas. Gary Reas was in the West Hardin Class of 1970 but had barely unpacked at Murray State University when the two longtime friends started dating. After graduation, Cathy went off to MSU and that sealed the deal for both of them.
After getting married, Cathy reluctantly left her hometown roots to follow her husband who had begun a career as a civilian working for the US Army. They and their daughter, Kelly Marie, lived in Clarksville, TN, Waukegan, IL, Heidelberg, Germany, and Syracuse, NY before moving to Huntsville, AL where they settled down for good. During those years Cathy continued her higher education. While in Germany she became the in-country coordinator for several colleges operating education programs in the area around Heidelberg supporting higher education for soldiers, including University of Maryland, City Colleges of Chicago and University of Southern California. She took advantage of that opportunity to complete her BA degree from UM as well as her MS from USC. She also learned to ski and travelled extensively around Europe but most importantly she grew her family with the birth of Robert Aaron. After returning to the US and settling in Huntsville, Cathy worked as business manager for the UAH College of Nursing. She later commuted weekly back and forth to Nashville to manage the Vanderbilt Nursing School Business Office. She was a recognized expert in the field and was elected President of the national Business Officers of Nursing School (BONUS) organization. When a recession hit in 2008, Cathy and many others were employment victims. After some self-examination this life-long overachiever decided early retirement didn't seem as bad as she'd first thought.
Over the years Cathy had the opportunity to visit most of the United States before mobility challenges made travel less frequent. Since she had always preferred "going" to ''staying home" that would have been a lot harder for her if she hadn't become Meemaw to Zoey, Olivia, and Molly. Her favorite things became overnight visits from her granddaughters, attending soccer games, gymnastics, archery or whatever the "kids" were doing. Cathy was known to all as a stickler for keeping records and making sure every activity was properly planned. Anyone involved in an event knew to expect a spreadsheet from her laying out clearly who would be doing what and when. She was well known to family and friends for her annual Christmas card she crafted herself. Everyone looked forward to the family pictures and Reas family year-in-review that began "Twas the night before Christmas" followed by her rendition of what the past year was like.
Cathy was preceded in death by her father, Marvin Ray Akins, and her grandparents, Charles and Pauline (Jaggers) Lawson, and Sam and Allie (Noe) Akin. She is survived by her husband, Gary Reas; daughter, Kelly McManus (Robert); son, Robert (Natasha); granddaughters, Zoey, Olivia, and Molly Reas; her mother, Charline Akins; sisters, Cindy Linder (Rick) and Christy Bennett (Tom); brother, Mark Akins; numerous cousins, nieces, nephews and extended family. No doubt, all will miss her stern admonition to "Now, be nice" when she disapproved of what was said or done. A greater loss will be her signature goodbye to close family or friends, whether in person or on the phone-- a bright and cheerful "Be Sweet".
Visitation will be from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Wednesday, November 12, 2025, at The Gathering Place at First Baptist Church. The funeral service will follow at 1:00 p.m. Burial will be in Maple Hill Cemetery.