| Sources |
- [S23] Atchley Funeral Home, (http://www.atchleyfuneralhome.com/), 11 May 2012.
Reese Marshall Ripatti
October 27, 1922 - May 11, 2012
Birthplace: Sevier Co, TN
Resided In: Sevierville Tennessee USA
Visitation: May 15, 2012
Service: May 15, 2012
Cemetery: Shiloh Cemetery, Pigeon Forge
Reese Marshall Ripatti passed away suddenly at home on May 11, 2012, at the age of 89.
Mabel Reese Marshall Ripatti was the daughter of John Leonidas Marshall and Mary Reese (“Miss Mabel”) Hicks Marshall. She was born at their home near the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River on October 27, 1922. She graduated from the Sevier County High School Class of 1940 and was always proud of the fact that she and her best friend Ernestine McMahan wrote the SCHS Alma Mater, which is still in use today. Reese graduated from Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, and shortly afterwards went north to help with the war effort by working at an airplane plant in Willow Run, Michigan. She soon switched to working at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she met her future husband, Harold Helle Ripatti, who died in 1980. They were married in the parlor at Rose Glen, her family home in Sevierville, on October 7, 1947, and they stayed in Ann Arbor until moving back to Sevierville in 1966. She and Harold had four daughters who survive her. Susan Elizabeth Ripatti of Louisville, TN; Sally Kate Ripatti Polhemus and husband Richard of Sevierville; Mary Ruth Ripatti Huskey and husband Doran Sr. of Sevierville; and Diane Marie Ripatti of Sevierville. Reese is also survived by two grandsons and their wives; Doran David Huskey, Jr. and Lydia, and Matthew Shane Huskey and Heather, all of Sevierville. Her first great-grandchild is expected in July. She also leaves her honorary daughter and granddaughter, Janet Pullen Kolarik and Annie Kolarik; another honorary daughter, Sharon Huskey; and the love of her later life and high school classmate, Jack Tarwater. Other family members include her niece Anna Kate Marshall Walker and great-niece Patty Marshall Campbell. Special friends include Sally Frakes of Ann Arbor, MI, and Elizabeth Denton of Sevierville.
Reese worked for fourteen years at the Sevier County Public Library before serving as library director from 1983 until she retired in January 1999 at age 77. She loved to travel and especially enjoyed cruising in Alaska. She was a lifelong reader and supporter of education. In 1991 she donated the land across from Rose Glen to be developed as the Sevier County Campus of Walters State Community College.
She was a member and past president of the GFWC Manthano Club of Sevierville, a member of the Huguenot Society, a member of the Board of Trustees at Walters State Community College, and a member of the First United Methodist Church of Sevierville.
Reese was known for her loving temperament, sweet smile, and generous nature. Donations may be made in her memory to either the Walters State Foundation, 500 S. Davy Crockett Parkway, Morristown, TN 37813 or to the Sevier County Public Library, c/o King Family Library, 408 High Street, Sevierville, TN 37862.
The family will receive friends from 5-7PM Tuesday with a funeral service to follow at 7PM in the West Chapel of Atchley Funeral Home with Rev. Bruce Adams officiating. Interment 10AM Wednesday in Shiloh Cemetery. (www.atchleyfuneralhome.com)
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 15 May 2012.
Ripatti remembered for ‘generous heart’
by DEREK HODGES
Reece Ripatti died Friday, May 11, 2012, at the age of 89.
SEVIERVILLE — Sevier County was left to mourn the passing of another of its great philanthropists and living legends over the weekend as news of the Friday death of Reese Ripatti spread.
Those who knew Ripatti agreed Monday there’s hardly a part of this area’s character that she didn’t help shape, from helping write the alma mater for Sevier County High School to contributing the land that brought higher education here. They remembered a woman with a caring personality and a warm smile.
“She was just a remarkable lady,” Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Gary Wade observed. “She had such a generous heart. I know her family is proud of the life she lived and the contributions she made to this community. They will live on long after her and provide reason for generations of Sevier County residents to be thankful for her generosity.”
- [S106] The Mountain Press, 15 May 2012.
EDITORIAL Thanks, Reese Ripatti: This generous, giving person made her mark and legacy on the county
She never sought attention or publicity. She actually was rather shy and reserved. She just had a deep sense of community and of being generous with what she had.
The death over the weekend of Reese Marshall Ripatti closed yet another chapter in the Sevier County book of people who made a difference. This woman of class and dignity showed her generosity in a way that has affected thousands of local residents, most of whom have no idea of what she did.
In 1991 she donated the land on which Walters State Community College now stands. At the time the college based in Morristown offered classes in what is now the Chamber of Commerce. Wanting to expand and needing the community to respond to that need, Reece Ripatti agreed to give local government property across the road from her Rose Glen home.
That was the spark needed to ignite what has been, over the last two decades, the creation of a marvelous college campus in this community, as fine a campus as you’ll find anywhere. Her family name of Marshall graces one of the buildings, as it should.
Mrs. Ripatti worked for 14 years at the Sevier County Public Library before becoming its director in 1983. She stayed in that position until retiring in 1999 at the age of 77.
Sevier County was her home. She was raised here and graduated from SCHS in 1940. She and her friend Ernestine McMahan wrote the school’s Alma Mater song, still in use today and yet another legacy of her skills, talents and great spirit.
Mrs. Ripatti joins a long list of benefactors and generous people who have made their mark on this community while neither expecting nor soliciting credit for it. Her gift of land — valuable land — on which to build a college campus is but one example of that, but maybe the most noteworthy. Land is valuable in Sevier County, To hand over such a large parcel in a great spot was a wonderful thing for her to do.
Reese Ripatti died on Friday at her home. She was 89. A fuller life one could not have lived. Thanks, Mrs. Ripatti, for all you did to make this county a better place to life, work and be educated.
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