Laney Garrett Reed was born on October 15, 1922 in Houston to George Laney Reed and Ruby Alice Miller Reed. He grew up in the Magnolia Park Neighborhood in the East End District at 6626 Avenue C. in Houston, Texas. After high school Laney G. Reed attended Texas A&M University in College Station for two years. At age 19, he worked for Houston based oil and gas surveying and consulting company, Apache Exploration Co.

On December 7 1942, the one year anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Laney Garrett Reed enlisted as a PVT in the US Army Reserves. He began training at Fort Lewis, in Washington state, before being stationed across France and Germany in 1945 where he was promoted to Technician 5th Grade. During his service he was stationed in Normandy, France. He then moved into Germany, being stationed at Wiesbaden near Frankfurt then Budsheim near Bingen where he helped in the construction of a PW camp along the Mainz River. He was then moved to Marseille, France at the end of WWII.

Upon his return to the U.S., he worked as a computer for a petroleum company in Jackson, Oklahoma according to the 1950 census. He eventually returned back to his hometown of Houston where he married Virginia Pauline “Ginger” Stuart (1931-2000) in 1956. At the age of 61, Laney G. Reed died on December 9, 1983 in Houston and is buried in Forest Park Westheimer Cemetery.

Ruby Alice Miller Reed was born on September 27, 1896 in Lometa, Texas to Newton L. Miller and Annie E. Sloan Miller. She married George Laney Reed (1880-1973) in 1920. Ruby and George had three children; Ruby Maxine Reed Gottlieb, Laney Garrett Reed, and Mildred Irene “Millie” Reed Hancock. Ruby Alice Miller Reed died on January 24, 1982 in Nacogdoches and is buried in Forest Park Lawndale Cemetery in Houston.