After

On February 26, 2007, Luella Mary Vanderlip Gray died at Oaklawn Hospital in Marshall, Michigan. Born in 1917 to Jay and Florence Vanderlip of Empire, Michigan, Luella was the second of their four children. She was a keenly intelligent girl who distinguished herself quickly as a diligent scholar and hard worker. Luella left Empire at the age of 18: it was the first time she had left the North Country. What courage that must have taken! Her intelligence did not escape the notice of one of her employers, who urged her to seek a university education. Paying for every cent of her college education by working in the university medical clinic, Luella received a degree in Home Economics from Western Michigan University and became a teacher in Zeeland, Michigan. Her second teaching job brought her to Albion where she lived the rest of her life. In 1945, Luella married Ernest Gray, a widower with two young girls, Jane Felton and Mary McPhail. Three children were born to this union:
Elizabeth Ann, Robert Dobson and Martha Ellen. Though she left full time teaching to raise her family, Luella returned to work at Albion College in the admissions office, the library and as an instructor in the Home Economics Department. Luella’s home in Albion shone with the fruits of her labors and her love for order and beauty. She was a brilliant seamstress, an inspired cook, a practical magician, a devoted friend, an unbeatable crossworder, cribbage and Scrabble player, and a voracious reader. Starting from the town of Empire, population 378, Luella’s travels took her all over the United States, Hawaii, and Great Britain. Small in stature, she was huge in influence for her five children. She followed their accomplishments with unstinting and quiet pride. You would find her in the stands of every ball game her son played, in the audience of every piano recital her daughters played, at the graduation ceremonies of all of her children. She loved to dance, she loved music,
she loved flowers and birds, she loved the company of her grandchildren, she loved her private times on the porch swing, novel in hand, radio softly playing in the background. She slipped away from us as she had lived with us – quietly, without complaint, with dignity and courage. Preceding Luella in death were her husband, Ernie (1999) and her oldest daughter, Jane (1999). She is survived by her children, Mary Gray, Elizabeth Gray, Robert (Sharon) Gray, Martha Gray (Fred) Horn, her grandchildren, Padraig (Jennifer) Fahey, Alizabeth (Terry) Towery, Morgan McCullough, Michael Churchward, Jesse Churchward, Drew Churchward, Erica Gray, David (Tasha)Gray, Annie Gray Horn and her great grandchildren, Liam, Nora Jane and Aidan Fahey, Jonathan, and Christian Gray. Her funeral service will take place at the Albion Methodist Church, Wesley Chapel at noon on Saturday, March 3, 2007.