Grace Townsend

CHARLESTON - Grace P. Townsend, 98, died at 7:30 a.m. Oct. 14, 2002, at the Charleston Manor.

Born Sept. 16, 1904, in Orange County, Ind., daughter of the late Louie Edwin and Emma Jane Pruitt Prosser, she lived in Mississippi County since 1911. She was a member of the Charleston United Methodist Church, member and past president of the American Legion Auxiliary and member of the Order of the Eastern Star. A graduate of Brown Business College in Cairo, Ill., she was first employed as a secretary for the Roy L. William's paving contracting business and then worked for Righter Trucking Company, Shelby Hardware and Ault Hardware. In 1954, she became the bookkeeper for Simmons Equipment Company, where she continued until retiring in 1974. She was a house mother of the Cheney Boys Dormitory at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau for three years.

On Oct. 24, 1925, she married Edward Downs Townsend who preceded her in death on April 28, 1941.

Survivors include: one daughter, Shirley Dugan of Charleston Route 3; one sister, Fie Jane Cooper of Eustis, Fla.; and seven grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and two great-great granddaughters.

Also preceding her in death were one son, Edward Downs Townsend; one grandson, Mark Townsend; and one brother, three sisters and one half brother.

Visitation is from 5 to 8 p.m. today at McMikle Funeral Home, where services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday. The Rev. Gerald Collier, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Charleston, will officiate. He will be assisted by her great-niece, the Rev. Carolyn Jo Vowels Ponder, associate pastor of the Whites United Methodist Chapel of South Lake, Texas.

Burial will follow in the IOOF Cemetery near Charleston.

Pallbearers will be her grandsons: Cliff Dugan, Chris Dugan, Clay Dugan, Clark Dugan, Matt Townsend and Scott Townsend.