Sylvia Bell Reese died in her sleep at her home in Tierra Verde, Fla. on Jan. 4.   She was born Sept. 8 in Philadelphia, Penn., in the 1920s. Her parents were Lt. Colonel Harold Leam Reese and Sue Frances (Bell). Ms. Reese spent much of her life traveling in Europe, Africa, Russia, the Caribbean and Alaska. Aside from Philadelphia, she lived in Hollywood, Calif., Phoenix, Ariz., Schenectady, N.Y., Duxbury, and briefly in Deep Haven, Minn.

Ms. Reese played competitive golf.  She enjoyed paddle tennis, listening to jazz and dancing, going to the cinema and discussing it afterwards, kibitzing with dear friends at the bridge or poker table, crosswords, cryptograms and Scrabble.  She was a champion swimmer while attending Bates College.

Ms. Reese had as much fun chatting with “her” supermarket check-out ladies as she did her famous neighbors in Appian Way in Hollywood. She is famously remembered for telling Dennis Hopper to pipe down and stop waking her babies when he returned home late at night on his Harley Davidson.

Ms. Reese leaves her daughter, Patricia Tesman of Milan, Italy; her sons John Tesman of Santa Barbara, Calif. and Matt Ciesicki of Paris France; her sister Nancy Cram of Bryn Mawr, Penn.; and her grandchildren Maxine Finzi of Milan, Italy and Garret Tesman of Santa Barbara, Calif.