Granny Grace was born on Christmas Eve in 1909 in Wilkes County, North Carolina. She had two younger sisters and came from a musical family, learning to play guitar, organ and piano from a young age. She went to Radford College and became a school teacher, working for 32 years in Virginia. Known for her talents in music, sewing, and leadership skills, she enjoyed family reunions and had a full life focused on her faith, family and teaching career until her death at almost 100 years old.

1. Granny Grace By: Aspen A. Gorman December 24, 1909- October 30, 2009

2. What was her date of birth? Do you know anything else about when she was born like when or where ? She was born Christmas Eve Dec. 24, 1909 in Wilkes County, NC at home with a doctor present .

3. What kinds of things did her family spend money on when she was young? Her father was a lumberman. He worked in a sawmill, made and sold cross-ties to the railroad, and worked as a carpenter. Later, he operated a grocery store and one of the first filling stations in North Wilksboro, NC. He bought her a guitar when she was nine years old, then an organ, later a piano. She learned to play all three well.

4. How many brothers and sisters did she have? Did she have any special stories or fond memories of them? She had two younger sisters, Sue and Irene. They were very active in their church youth group and Sunday afternoons were for visiting relatives, they had lots of cousins whom they loved to play with. She was a tomboy and preferred to play with the boys instead of girls.

5. What did she want to be when she grew up? Being very musical, she played piano for Sunday School and Church beginning at the age of 12 and continued until arthritis forced to stop playing at the age of 94. She really wanted to be an opera singer. She had a beautiful voice and sang for church and in school musicals when she was growing up.

6. Did she go to University or college? If so, where. She graduated from Radford College with a degree in education and taught school for 32 years in Buchanan County, VA

7. What was her first job? Probably her first job was playing the piano for silent movies on Saturdays in her home town of North Wilksboro. She was in either 9th or 10th grade. The theater was the old livery stable that the owner had turned into the first movie house in that town. She made all of .50 cents for playing for 2 hours. The movies were only about 30 minutes long and were shown over & over. She also worked as a cashier for Woolworth 5 & 10 Store in Welsh< WVA her last year in high school (1929).

8. For some unknown reason her cousins called her &quot;PIG&quot; and she actually had a few ceramic pigs as a collection many years ago. Did she have any nicknames as a child or adult and where did they come from?

9. Did she have any special talents? Besides being very musical she was an excellent seamstress, crocheter, knitter & quilter. She was a natural born leader & delegator. She was a real take charge person. One who could spear head a committee and get things done.

10. Did she have any special sayings or expressions? If someone really made a big mistake she would say, “Well, heavens above I can't believe they did such a dumb thing as that.” She was a no nonsense person.

11. What was her favorite book, movie? She was an avid reader and read thousands of books in her lifetime, but I do not know her favorite one. She had a lot of favorite writers. She loved the good old black & white movies from the 40's & 50's especially the musicals with Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers.

12. What did she do for fun? Her fun came from her love of teaching and being so active with students in school, community & church. She served on several civic organizations, the BEA, Lion's Club, Retired Teachers, Delta Kappa Gamma, the Oakwood Quilters, the DAR and a very active church life.

13. What do you think was her most cherished family tradition and why? Probably her most cherished family tradition was the family reunions that we had every 3 to 5 years. She loved for the family to get together and share a special weekend with lots of good food, lots of laughter, lots of reminiscing and card games & scrabble which she usually won.

14. How do you think she would have defined a &quot;good life&quot; or successful life?&quot; She always felt that she had lived in the greatest century because she went from oil lamps, no indoor plumbing, horse and buggy to seeing man reach the moon. She said her generation had seen it all. Her career as a school teacher was certainly a great success, she influenced many students.

15. What do you think her happiest or proudest moment was? Her proudest moment was probably when Radford University recognized her as the first Legacy In Teaching. That was quite an honor.

16. What things do you think were most important to her? Most important to her was her faith in God, her family, and her teaching. She took so much pride in being busy & accomplishing something every day. She never sat around and did nothing, there was always something to be done and she did it.

17. Thank you for watching!