Born in Kerry Patch, he entered Saint Louis University at age 14. Reeedy’s first job was as a reporter at the Missouri Republican. Hired and fired repeatedly during drinking bouts, in 1893 he took a job as editor at the scandal sheet, the St. Louis Mirror. Soon bankrupt, the paper´s owner gave it to Reedy as a gift. He renamed it The Mirror and began the revival of the paper that he would head for 29 years.

In 1896 his anti-Spanish American war stance brought The Mirror national recognition, but cost him readers and revenue. The paper went bankrupt again. His friend James Campbell bought the paper and turned the editorship back over to Reedy. Throughout Reedy´s tenure, the paper not only exposed corruption in government and published social criticism, but also introduced many of the most prominent writers of the early 20th century, including St. Louisans Sara Teasdale and Zoe Akins, as well as Carl Sandburg, Edgar Lee Masters, Conrad Aiken, Edna St. Vincent Millay. [Cuoco/Gass]