Grace Lungley

AUGUST 29, 1916-MAY 30, 2022

GRACE ELLIOT (MORROW) LUNGLEY was born August 29, 1916, in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada to parents Norman Elliot and Elizabeth (Singleton) Elliot. As a child she grew up in the village of Regina Beach, a tiny community of a handful of families that expanded to perhaps 200 souls in the summer because of a nearby lake. There she and her four siblings Eva, James, Lorna and Thomas played, went to school and helped in the Elliot General store that her father and mother built and ran. At the age of 12 she and the family moved to New Westminster and soon after Vancouver (B.C.)

After graduating from high school, in the depth of the depression, she was able to get a “good” job working for the telephone company. She lived at home until the age of 27 when she met and married David James Morrow, a part owner of the Star Steam Laundry and a dashing young officer in the Canadian navy. Tragically, two years later, her beloved husband David was lost at sea November 1944, the result of a German submarine finding its target towards the end of World War II. Fortunately, Alice Davida Morrow was born 7 months later.

As a beautiful merry widow Grace was wined and dined by many. She traveled to Switzerland for one month and stayed for six. She volunteered with the Junior League and later was President of the Georgian Club, now part of the Vancouver Club.

Ten years after the death of her first husband, Grace met and married the second love of her life Arthur Frank Lungley on March 1, 1956. An immigrant from England, tall, handsome, a survivor of WWII, he was a good husband, stepfather and son-in-law to Grace’s mother Elizabeth who continued to live with the family for the rest of her life.

An inveterate shopper, nothing put more of a glint in her eye and delight in her demeanor than to go on a shopping expedition, “for bargains”. Clothes, “antiques”, food, she was always looking for the yellow tags at Fred Meyer or the sale bin at the Army and Navy. Even a few months before her death, after she was vaccinated and boostered for Covid her idea of fun was to shop at Fred Meyer looking for the yellow tags using the shopping cart for support.

Always ready to entertain and travel, Grace and Arthur went on many adventures together, particularly long trips to Maui where they met and became long-time friends with so many from the Maui Kai. And they hosted parties to celebrate New Years’, birthdays, anniversaries together and then after Arthur’s death Grace carried on entertaining. And she often travelled to far off places with her daughter, husband and family: at 80 to Cambodia, at 90 to Botswana, at 100 to Myanmar, mixed in with several bareboat sailing trips along the way.

St. Augustine’s Anglican Church was a big focus at the end of her life. She loved the friends she made there, gathering greens from the neighborhoods nearby for the decorations, and in particular tending the church garden. Having sold her Vancouver home of 45 years she took up apartment living with gusto again making good friends at The Fontainebleau. Finally, she was persuaded to move to Portland OR to be near her daughter and family. So, in 2020 at 103 years of age she was a new immigrant to Portland Oregon, but still living independently in her own newly purchased condo. It was in her condo in her bed that she died peacefully in her sleep, which was what she wanted.

Grace is predeceased by her parents and all her siblings and her two husbands, the last of an era. She is survived by her daughter Davida (Slate) plus grandchildren Megan (Mike) and Will and two beloved great grandchildren Leone Grace and Edith and many nieces, nephews, and friends. In later life she became good friends with her stepson (Brooke Campbell now deceased) and his wife Janet Campbell and their children Shan Bodie (Jeremy) and Alan Campbell (Shelley) and their relatives in England.

No flowers please. Donations may be made to St. Augustine’s Anglican Church (Vancouver Canada), 8680 Hudson St. or Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada or Portland Art Museum , Portland OR. There will be a Celebration of Life at the Multnomah Athletic Club 1849 SW Salmon St., Portland OR 97205 on June 26th at 3 pm.

“She lived and laughed and loved and left” James Joyce