Emma Pace, 101, died on September 8, 2018. She was born in Finlay, Texas, on December 31, 1916 to Hester Sparrow and Henry Martin Kelly. Her early years were spent in Clint and the El Paso, Texas, living with her 4 brothers and 3 sisters in an adobe house her parents built on their small cotton farm.
The Depression took away her parent’s livelihoods and their farm. Her mother died when Emma was 19, and she helped support her remaining family until 1939 when she got married.
In 1941 with her 2 son’s, Marvin and Marshall, Emma moved from El Pasco to San Diego and then to Burbank, California to fabricate parts for P-38 Bombers and to be closer to several of her brothers and sisters.
She married Edward Pace in 1943, and after the war they moved to Seattle, Washington and Stayed for several years and then to Wenatchee where Edward had grown up. Emma trained as a hair dresser and ran her own shop in Wenatchee for many years while Edward worked for USPS. They spent many a day enjoying fishing on Eastern Washington lakes and rivers.
In 1985 they moved to Olympia, to be closer to family. Emma always had a beautiful garden with fragrant roses and lush peonies as well as huge tomatoes planted next to the south wall of their house plus bushels of green beans, year after year. She was a talented seamstress, sewing blouses and dresses from patterns, and creating intricate needlepoint and embroidered artwork to decorate her walls. She also hand stitched and embroidered intricate patterns on quilts and linens made for her family and for donating to the Trinity Lutheran Church Christmas Bazar.
Emma was preceded in death by her parents, brother’s Pat, Leroy, Allan and Henry, her sister’s Gertrude, Lorena and Alma and in1994, her husband Edward.
She is survived by her 2 sons, Marvin and Marshall (Kathleen), of Olympia, as well as 10 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren, and 1 great-great-grandson.
Services for Emma will be held Friday, September 14, 2018 at Mills & Mills Funeral Home and Memorial Park, visitation in the Funeral Home chapel 10:00 am to 12:00 pm, followed by a graveside Committal at 2:00 pm.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made out to Manor Care of Lacey, Activity Department in Memory of Emma Pace and sent to Manor Care, 4524 Intelco Loop SE, Lacey, Washington 98503.
