Eloise and Genevieve Reed were born in Salem, Oregon to Cyrus and Jane (Cline) Reed on April 17, 1885. Eloise is five minutes older that Genevieve. Cyrus Reed was an adjunct general during the Civil War and owned a theater in Salem. Although natives of Oregon they were raised in Kings county. They spent much of their time on either a 160 acre ranch west of Lemoore or a 5 acre farm on Champion Street, both were owned by their grandmother.
The twins went to Seattle to study music and dance. While there they were “discovered” by a producer who wanted to take them New York. Their mother consented and accompanied them.
They trouped through musical comedy, vaudeville, repertory, and silent films. They toured the United States, Canada, and Cuba. They worked with many famous names of the time, Flo Ziegfeld, Eddie Foy, and Montgomery and Stone among others.
When the film industry left New York for California, the twins had a chance to move with it. Against the advice of their manager they decided to stay in New York to not break their contract with Charles Dillingham.
The sisters left the limelight in the 1920s when their mother, Jane, was diagnosed with an incurable illness and wanted to live near relatives in the area. Jane’s mother, Mary C. Cline, owned the Cline Subdivision which was a re-subdivision of the southern half of block “J” in Moore’s Addition.
The sisters returned to a modest single-story home on the site of their old wooden house where they were raised on Champion street. Their brother Leo Willis Reed was employed as a bookkeeper by the Hanford Furniture Company for close to 40 years, after a brief stint in show business. He died in 1964.
Genevieve died on March 13, 1980 and Eloise followed on March 19, 1981. They are buried in adjoining plots in the Lemoore Cemetery.