Grace Margaret Urban

Grace Margaret Urban passed away on February 9, 2011 at Monmouth Nursing Home. She was delivered into this world by her father, May 7, 1917, in Lucas, Kansas. She was the youngest child of Dr. Ray Gue and Gertrude Fay Doane. She had two brothers and one sister, with whom she was very close all their lives. Her father died when she was five. Her mother returned to finish high school, graduating with her oldest son, then taught elementary grade school in western Kansas until the age of seventy. Although Grace Margaret, as she was always called, lived in far western Kansas, she spent holidays and summers in Lucas with friends and relatives. It was there that she and her future husband dated through their high school years. Grace Margaret was an accomplished pianist. All through her life she was accompanist for her high school and college choirs, and many civic clubs and church groups. Even in her elder-hood, though mostly blind, she still enjoyed entertained the grandchildren on the piano. Grace Margaret graduated from Wynona School, then attended Kansas Wesleyan University for two years on a piano scholarship. On December 26, 1938, she married David Osterfund Urban in Winslow, Arkansas. Their marriage had been being encouraged by David's family from a number of years. Neither expected to get married during what was purported to be a routine Christmas holiday meeting. However, neither objected to it, either. And this was their one and only marriage - 72 years. Truly it was "Till death do us part." During his life-long career with F. W. Woolworth they lived in Alexandria, Monroe, and New Orleans, Louisiana; Kansas City, Missouri; Shawnee, Oklahoma; St. Louis, Missouri (twice); Overland Park Kansas; Waco and McAllen, Texas, where they retired. For over forty years she worked as a bookkeeper in savings and loan offices and automobile dealerships. She was known for her speed and accuracy. She especially was good at doing the complex paperwork involved in automobile sales. She was a life-long Methodist, although she, in their later years together in McAllen, attended the Presbyterian Church. She was also a member of the Order of Eastern Star and helped her husband at the Shrine club in McAllen until infirmities and blindness set in. After three years in a retirement center, they moved to Monmouth in August of 2007. She is survived by two sons, Prof William L. Urban of Monmouth and the Rev. John T. Urban of Brandon, Mississippi; five grandchildren, among whom is Elke Narkiewicz, and eleven great-grandchildren. She was pre-deceased by her parents, two brothers, Kenneth and Donald Doane, and her sister, Janet Dendurent. Services:Cremation is being accorded. A memorial service will be planned at a later date by her family.