About Me​

​​

​

I was born in Lincoln, NE, to Jack and Mary O’Shea, who already had a 3-year old son, John. We moved to my dad’s hometown of Huntington, WV, and later returned to Lincoln, adding  sisters Karen in 1958 and Mary in 1959.

 

I attended Merle Beattie Elementary, Irving Jr High and Lincoln Southeast High School. After

graduating mid-term in 1974, rather than starting college, I got a job as flag woman for a local

construction company, which I quickly learned was not my life vocation.

 

I started working at Hovland Swanson in the billing department, and in January 1975, started at the University of Nebraska working on a Classics degree. I continued to work at Hovlands and married my boyfriend.

 

In the spring of 1980, I finally graduated from college and went to work as a bookkeeper for Olsson Construction. I left there to work at the Nebraska Dept. of Education in their MIS section. This is where I met Alan Reese. It was a fun place to work, but my husband wanted us to move to the country, have kids and grow trees. That didn’t match my thoughts for the future so we divorced.

 

Wanting a change, I accepted a job in IT at Richman-Gordman’s corporate headquarters in Omaha. The job was interesting, but car-pooling from Lincoln to Omaha was not fun. I debated moving to Omaha, but a friend suggested I should apply at Lincoln Telephone. I started there in 1985, working first in Data Processing, then Data Communications and finally Corporate Communications. The phone company was across the street from the State Office Building, so I occasionally met up with my old Education team after work. That’s how I reconnected with Alan. 

In October of 1986, we got married and I acquired two wonderful bonus children, Justin and Brendan.

 

In 1996, I decided to try something different and accepted a job at MDS Harris Labs, a local company that did Phase I to Phase III drug studies. It was a fascinating, but stressful place to work. Lucky for me, my former boss wanted me back.

 

I returned to the phone company, now called Aliant, in 1997. In 1999, we learned the company was going to be sold to a Little Rock company called ALLTEL. 

 

After the transition, I started as a Regional Marketing manager for a 12-state region. In 2004, ALLTEL reorganized and I was transferred to Little Rock to work in the Marketing department. This was a tough move for us, especially Alan. However, we came to love Arkansas.

 

In 2009, Verizon acquired ALLTEL and started moving operations back east. Alan didn’t want to leave Little Rock. I was 53 and received no responses to resumes I sent out. Then a headhunter asked me to come to Oklahoma City for an interview with a local electric utility, Oklahoma Gas & Electric.

 

It was a good opportunity, but it cost me my marriage. I bought a house and adopted two cats and later two dogs.

 

In the summer of 2015, my niece was getting married in Lincoln. Alan was in town and attended her wedding. My entire family was excited to see him again, as was I. He moved to OKC and slowly we worked our way back together.

 

In February 2024, we became grandparents when Brendan and his wife Kaitlyn had their first child, Lola.

​

Spouse/Partner:   Alan Reese

Bonus Children:  Justin Reese, Brendan Reese