Grace Eleanor (Tillery) Wright, a resident of Madison Manor in Madison, AL, departed for her eternal home with Jesus on Monday, October 13. James and Myrtle Tillery (of Montgomery, AL) welcomed Grace, the first of their six children, into their family on June 6, 1929. Grace lived almost a full century, ninety-six years and four months.

Immediately after graduating from Montgomery Bible High School (now Alabama Christian Academy) in 1946, Grace began her six-year career as a typist in the Alabama State Auditor's office. She gave up that work to do something she valued far more, serving her loving husband and raising their children together. Grace married Doyle Wright, a Jefferson, IA, native, on February 5, 1953. In the twenty years that followed, she gave birth to seven sons and four daughters. Grace worked tirelessly to meet the physical needs of her family: cooking delicious meals, washing endless loads of clothes, cleaning up messes, providing transportation, and nursing the sick or injured.

But Grace felt a much deeper concern for the spiritual needs of her family. A woman of great faith, she prayed fervently, cherished the sacred Scriptures, supported Doyle's preaching ministry in the Churches of Christ, and modeled "the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit." Even in the nursing home, where she lay debilitated by a stroke and strong chronic pain, Grace continued to revel in the goodness and faithfulness of God and to care selflessly about the needs and hurts of other people. Grace's children, Jim Wright, Roger (Annette) Wright, Jerry (Lori) Wright, Grace (Dan) Wheeler, Susan Dover, David (Carolyn) Wright, Sam (Angela) Wright, Jon (Wanda) Wright, Fred (Anne) Wright, and Joanna (Marty) Walker, as well as Grace's twenty-nine grandchildren and thirty-three great-grandchildren, can take great comfort in the promise of Jesus, who said, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live."

Ten of Grace's children and two of her siblings, Don Tillery and Donna Bennett, have survived her. Grace's parents, her husband of fifty-nine years, her daughter Rebekah Jane, and three siblings, Sarah Pledger, Jimmy Tillery, and Geneva Calvert, preceded her in death.

The family will receive friends on Thursday, October 16th, from 5:00-7:00 PM at Berryhill Funeral Home.