Ashland Baptist was ‘warrior for missions’

ASHLAND — Dorothy Crace will be remembered as “a warrior for missions” in the state of Kentucky and beyond.

Crace, 83, died on March 3 in Ashland. She was a longtime member of Oakland Avenue Baptist Church in Catlettsburg, serving 71 years and singing in the choir for 68 years.

Service was her calling card. She worked on the Kentucky Baptist Convention mission board and the Kentucky Baptist Foundation and as a regional representative for Sunrise Children’s Services, along with being an active and avid leader in the Greenup Association of Baptist Churches.

These were in addition to what she did at her home church and with the Woman’s Missionary Union. She served on the Kentucky WMU Executive Board from 1982-87 and 2003-06.

Pam Holbrook, who worked with Crace on many WMU projects called her “Mrs. WMU. She was everywhere. I mean the woman was everywhere. I don’t know how we can replace her.”

Missions became Crace’s extreme passion following the death of her beloved husband, Carl, in 2002. They were married for 49 years and worked side by side at Carl’s salon in Ashland for more than 38 years. They raised three children and enjoyed eight grandchildren.

“She’s been involved in the WMU her entire life, ever since I can remember,” said her nephew Mike Crace, who is the Royal Ambassadors and Brotherhood leader at First Baptist Church of Russell. “She beat that drum every day. There’s not a church in the state that didn’t know her.

“Every time I was at an associational meeting, there she was,” he said. “She’d talk WMU and I’d talk Brotherhood.”

“The thing I’ll remember about her was her sweet spirit,” Crace added. “She never had a harsh word for anybody. Never ever. She loved her family and it goes without saying she loved the Lord.”

Crace was an avid painter of landscapes and portraits, was a self-taught piano player and taught countless Sunday School and Bible School classes in children’s ministries.

She was diagnosed with mesothelioma in September and has been in Hospice care since November.

She is survived by her three children, Carla Crace Dixon of Louisville, Stephen Crace of Cannonsburg and Jason Crace of Harrodsburg, and eight grandchildren. (KT)