McAllister, Alberta Reed

Alberta Reed (Bert) McAllister, 98, formerly of Wytheville and Blacksburg, Va., died on Thursday, July 11, 2013, at Riverview Nursing Home, Rich Creek, Va. She was born on March 14, 1915, one of 12 children, in a farm family to Landon Blaine Reed and Allie Saferight Reed of Max Meadows.

She was educated in Wythe County Schools and married Howard Tate McAllister, of Wytheville, on January 5, 1936. After many years as a homemaker, she discovered a talent that was useful in retail sales, and spent a number of years working for Rose’s and Ched’s, regional department stores in Southwestern Virginia. Other skills in home canning and baking were well known to family members and she amassed a phenomenal number of prizes in local fairs, including 14 Grand Prizes in the Price’s Fork Annual Fair, and more than 60 Blue Ribbon first prizes in that fair and the Newport Agricultural Fair, the New River Valley Fair and others. Mrs. McAllister was preceded in death by her husband, Howard McAllister, who died in 1991; a daughter, Wilma Jean McAllister Templeton, who died in 1987 at the age of 49; and all of her brothers and sisters. Surviving children include Howard Landon McAllister, 76, of Moore, Okla., and Carl Price McAllister, 67, of Richmond, Va. Also among her survivors are four grandchildren, William West McAllister, of Bristow, Va., Ellen Reed McAllister, of Las Vegas, Nev., and Laura Templeton and Kara Templeton, both residing in Pennsylvania. Funeral Services will be held at 2 p.m. on Monday, July 15, 2013, at the Barnett Funeral Home Chapel with the Reverend Preston Sartelle officiating. Interment will follow in West End Cemetery. The family will receive friends on Monday from noon until service time at the funeral home. Online condolences may be sent to the family at www. highlandfuneralservice.com Barnett Funeral Home, Wytheville, Va., 276-228-3121, is serving the McAllister family.