Grace Eleanor (Moline) Fletcher

Grace Eleanor (Moline) Fletcher was born to Maurice and Mildred (Johnson) Moline on March 17, 1932, in Wahoo, Nebraska.

Grace graduated from High School in Mead, Nebraska in 1949.  On February 24, 1950, she eloped with Richard Fletcher to Vermillion, South Dakota, where they were married at the Lutheran pastor’s parsonage with the pastor’s wife as their witness.  They were married 65 years.

While Richard was serving in the Marine Corps in Korea, Grace stayed with her folks and gave birth to their first child.  After the war, Grace made a home for them as Richard attended the university in Fort Collins, Colorado.  He began a long career as a forester, working for the U.S. Forest Service in Colorado and Wyoming, and the Arkansas Forestry Commission. As the family moved around, four more children were added to the family, all born in different locations.

Grace loved being a mother and homemaker, but also worked in various jobs over the years, once owning her own clothing store. After Richard’s retirement from the Forestry Commission in Arkansas in 1993, he and Grace built a house in Colorado.  Desiring more flexibility, they sold that house and bought an RV.  As Grace said, they became “vagabonds,” and the lifestyle allowed them to be camp hosts and to be with their son in Colorado when his health failed.  Eventually, they settled in Harrison, Arkansas for thirteen years and then a retirement community in Arizona for two years.  After Richard’s death in 2015, Grace made her home in Brighton, Colorado, to be near her daughter Sara.

Grace was always active in her Lutheran Church wherever she lived, and volunteer activities were an integral part of her life.  She pieced fabric and quilted, giving many of her pieces to charities while supplying family members with beautiful quilts that will remind them of her love.  She made a pilgrimage to the farm her grandparents left in Malmo, Sweden.  She mastered the computer and became the family’s “minister of information,” keeping everyone connected. 

Grace was preceded in death by her parents; sister, Evonne Johnson; infant brother, Maurice Moline, Jr.; husband, Richard; and their son, Richard Fletcher, Jr. in 1999.   Grace is survived by four daughters:  Jolene Fletcher (Douglas King), Julie Fletcher-Tighe (Michael Tighe), Sara (David) Gremel, and Karen Fletcher.  She is also survived by 14 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.

Interment will be at New Elmwood Cemetery in Fruita, Colorado.

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