January 1, 1932, New Years Day, it was a Friday, and on that day in Birmingham, Alabama the first baby of the year was born, and her parents, Sherman and Johnnie Lambert Coley named her Mary Lois. Her life began with celebrity and fame and recognition with awards and plaques. Eighty six years, nine months and thirty days later, Mary Lois, passed into life eternal on the morning of October 31, 2018 in Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola.
A lot of living, happiness, sorrow and achievements happened in Mary’s life between those two significant dates. Many world events happened early on in Mary’s life, World War II which changed the lives of just about everybody. She married her husband, John Lowery Grice, a marriage that would span some forty eight and a half years, who was a military man and followed him in his various duty stations and was hired in an administrative position with Civil Service, a position she held for some thirty-three years until she retired.
She and John, after retirement moved to the home they had built at Blue Mountain and after John’s death in November of 2000, Mary continued to live there, delighting in cooking and serving “good “ol Southern food to her family and friends and became every more staunch in her Conservative views. She delighted in going shopping and would shop till she dropped. Mary was a member of Seagrove Baptist Church and was active until health problems and age prevented her attendance.
Her passing in Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola did not muster the fanfare and recognition her birth on New Year’s Day in 1932 in Birmingham, Alabama did, but the in-between, the children, her work, her marriage, her grandchildren, her faithfulness, her friends and acquaintances filled the gap in many lives for years to come. She is preceded in death by her husband John who passed away in November of 2000, her brother Jack Coley and wife Esther, her brother-in-law Leary and wife Jeanette and her sisters-in-law Bessie and Bobbie Joyce. Among survivors are her children, Wade Grice and wife Sandy, Connie Ann Grice and husband Randy Cotton, her brothers, Bill and Jim Coley and her grandchildren, Jason Grice, Tracy Grice and Tonya Grice Little and husband Charlie.
Floral arrangements are being accepted or memorials may be made in Mary L. Grice’s memory to St. Jude Hospital Children’s Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, TN 38105. Those asked to serve as pallbearers are Allen White, John M. Grice, Bobby R. Grice, Jason Grice, Bob Spence and Raymond McDonald. A time of visitation will be Tuesday, November 6, 2018 from 10:30 A.M. until 11 A.M.at Graveside in Red Bay Cemetery with the funeral beginning at 11 A.M. with Reverend Gary Wiggins officiating.
Burial will follow in the Grice Family Plot in Red Bay Cemetery.
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