Zelma L. Gray, 84, of Macomb, died at 3 a.m. Friday, May 10, 1996, at Americana Healthcare Center in Peoria.
She was born Dec. 10, 1911, near Astoria, a daughter of Everett and Elizabeth Heaton Sowers. She married Kenneth W. Gray on Dec. 23, 1933, in Rushville. He died Jan. 17, 1979. Two brothers also preceded her in death.
Surviving are two daughters, Mary Jane Goad of Peoria and Dana Kay Sanders of Kodak, Tenn.; four sisters, Dorothy Cavanaugh and Norma Kitchen, both of Monmouth, and Virginia Juros and Beulah Johnson, both of Michigan; three brothers, Donald Sowers of Ohio, Richard Sowers of Michigan and Robert Sowers of Iowa; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
She earned her teaching certificate from Western Illinois University and Greeley University in Greeley, Colo. She taught school in rural McDonough County for eight years and taught second grade at Grant School in Macomb for 14 years. She retired in the early 1970s. She served two terms on Macomb School Board in the 1950s. She helped organize and was co-leader of Sand Hill Topperettes 4-H Club for 10 years. She was a member of the National, Illinois, and McDonough County Retired Teacher’s Associations. She was a member of Emmitt Homemakers Association, the Grandmother’s Club, Christian Women’s Club and Roseville Nursing Home Auxiliary. She was a member of Maple Avenue Christian Church and its Christian Women’s Fellowship.
Funeral services were held Tuesday at Clugston-Tibbitts Funeral Home with Rev. Ralph Swarthout and Rev. Charles Smith officiating. Burial was in Forest Lawn Memory Gardens.
Memorials may be made to her church, LaMoine Christian Nursing Home in Roseville or the Alzheimer’s Association.
From the Peoria Journal Star.
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