A Celebration of Life for Alta Grace Hirst is planned for 1 p.m. Sunday, June 23, at the Dover Farms Community Building in Martin, just east of 131 on the south side of 116th Avenue.
Alta Grace Hirst was born on March 20, 1938, and died on April 23. Most people called her Grace, but over her lifetime she went by many names: daughter, sister, wife, aunt, friend, widow. Some called her Ma, Grandma Grace, Nana and even Granny.
Grace was a collector of ceramic pigs, carousel horse figurines, a rainbow of Fiesta ware, and she possessed a closet full of pastel skirt suits with pumps dyed to match, pedestal cake stands and a Christmas collection. Grace grew her own “salsa” garden, she carefully planted her own varieties of peppers, overplanting tomatoes and zucchinis, stubbornly planted watermelons in the gravel around the pool. She eventually gave up on vegetables and exchanged them for a deep and abiding love affair with hibiscus, iris, peonies, and lilies, lovingly tending her flowers from her motorized wheelchair. She sewed clothing for everyone and started a sewing business when she was in her 50s. She proudly sewed for General Motors, Hayworth, and Stryker until a stroke compelled her retirement.
Also a antiquer, her interests were varied. She hung wallpaper, painted walls and crocheted rugs. An avid bowler, Grace and her husband, Glen would spend Sunday afternoons with their bowling league and often traveled for tournaments. Grace was a standard bearer and demonstrated for several generations of women how to live strong and independently.
She is survived by children: Brenda Concright, Sue Foley (John), Cynthia Miller, many grandchildren, great grandchildren and a great grandchild, sisters Ginger Nelson, Texanna Gann and Bernie Hinton (Harold Wind).
She was preceded in death by her sons Larry and Tom Strayer, and siblings Jack, Tom, Joe, Jim, and Billy Hinton, Lucille Loveless and Leila Rose.
As Grace had wished, cremation has taken place.
