Grace W. Murphy's Obituary
Annie Grace Wilson Murphy, a long-time resident of the Riverbend community in New Bern, N.C., passed away Aug. 15, 2014, at age 91, in Leesburg, Va. Grace, born in Evanston, Illinois, on Dec. 7, 1922, the daughter of William and Grace Porter Wilson, grew up in Thomasville, Ga. As she grew into her full beauty, Grace turned many a head of potential suitors. A scholar and intellectual at heart, Grace graduated from Thomasville High School as the class valedictorian. Answering the call for skilled machinists, her father took a war-related job with the US Navy and moved the family to Washington, D.C. It was there that Grace found herself working the night shift at the Bureau of Standards, where she met a dashing young man named Charles Murphy – Murph, as she called him. An Irishman and a westerner, Murph had a way with words and a deeply romantic nature. Sparks flew, fireworks went off and, inevitably, they were married. Murph's subsequent job with the US Geological Survey was like the answer to the question: Love to travel? Murph and Grace and their growing family lived in dozens of places up and down the East Coast, with Grace organizing the moves, making sure the family's entire collection of worldly possessions was safely stowed in the small trailer they towed from move to move.
After almost two decades in the field making topographic maps, Murph and Grace settled back where they started, in the Washington D.C. area. As new homeowners - for the first time! – the family needed a new source of income. Grace went to work for her mother at the American Horticultural Society. During those years, the relationship between Grace and her mother deepened and matured and Grace's mother grew to look to Murph as a stalwart son. When her mother left the American Horticultural Society, Grace took a job at the Smithsonian Institution, where she forged lifelong friendships and interacted with some of the most interesting people in the world.
When it came time to retire, Grace and Murph looked at a lot of alternatives before falling in love with New Bern. They bought a house on a canal in Riverbend. Murph golfed and did many professional-quality home improvement projects and Grace got active in several community organizations. A lifelong devoted and eclectic reader interested in everything, Grace especially enjoyed being part of the local book club. In her later years, when friendships often don't come easy, Grace felt especially blessed to be part of the beloved Mermaids – a group of like-minded ladies who met at the New Bern YMCA twice a week for water aerobics followed by coffee. When circumstances obliged her to leave New Bern to be closer to her daughters, leaving the Mermaids behind was the very hardest thing of all.
Grace was a talented watercolorist, seamstress, and cook and found many, many hours of joy, particularly during her retirement years, pursuing these passions. In these years, Grace and Murph also enjoyed traveling; they loved "shun-piking" - taking weekend trips down back roads - and discovering new places. Murph was always ready to go and Grace was a game companion.
Grace had six children, Paul, Mary, Bill, Joan, Pat and Sarah. Joan, cherished daughter and sister, passed away in 2004. Murph passed away in 2007.Grace loved and was proud of her children, her 17 grandchildren and 15 great grandchildren. Her loving family continues to grow as there will be two more great grandchildren born in the coming months. She was interested in each of them as individuals, was never judgmental and was generous with her praise.
Grace – Grandma – lived a full, rich and adventuresome life, maybe not the life she planned when she first kissed Murph on that bridge in the early morning light of wartime Washington, but she went with the flow and things worked out pretty well in the end. She left her mark on this world, written in the faces and hearts of her offspring. It's a good mark.
Funeral services will be held privately.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, 5540 Falmouth Street Suite 10, Richmond, VA 23230.
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