Joyce Krause Grainger

1929 - 2021

(News story) Joyce Krause Grainger, a Whitmer High School special education teacher who guided students through academic subjects and such life tasks as applying for a job, died Sunday at home in Wood County's Middleton Township. She was 91.

She'd developed complications from a stroke, said her daughter Amy Danforth.

Mrs. Grainger taught at Whitmer for most of her career, retiring in the mid-1990s. She was well suited to special education, her daughter said.

"A lot of times these weren't kids who were going to be bank presidents or lawyers or doctors," her daughter said. "She taught them life skills - how to apply for a job, how to read a phone book - as well as the basic classes.

"She spent a lot of time on what job might suit you. She was a stickler - you do the job to the best of your ability, and you don't let people down," her daughter said.

Mrs. Grainger began teaching children with learning difficulties in the early 1960s, when she returned to the profession as a suddenly single mother of three after her first marriage ended. She started in the Sylvania schools before moving to the Washington Local system.

"She was well suited to that," her daughter said. "I think she was a grounding force for them. She gave them opportunities and was a compassionate teacher for those who didn't quite fit in."

Before retirement, she married Glen Grainger, and they made their home along the Maumee River across from Waterville. She volunteered for Mobile Meals of Toledo until she was 90.

She was born March 28, 1929, to Irene and King McCreery, Jr., and grew up adjacent to the Old West End. She was a graduate of Scott High School.

She was a swimmer in high school, with the humid poolside air thought to relieve her childhood asthma. She spent summers through high school and college as a counselor and waterfront director at Camp Newaygo north of Grand Rapids, Mich.

At Bowling Green State University, she pursued studies in physical education and was a member of the Swan Club, the synchronized swimming troupe. Years later, when daughter Amy was nine months old, she began a pre-toddler swim program at the YWCA in Toledo.

She knew she wanted to move west and sent her resume to school districts in places with water and mountains. She accepted an offer from a Seattle high school to teach physical education. She and her first husband, Fred W. Krause, relocated to southeastern Pennsylvania, then later moved to northwest Ohio to be close to her family and settled in the Trilby area of what is now northwest Toledo.

She liked to visit art fairs and festivals and go canoeing. For decades she spent summers at the family cottage on the Leelenau Peninsula in northwest Lower Michigan.

"She was adventuresome," said Carolyn Tiettmeyer, a former neighbor and longtime friend. "She was just fun - always up. She had a lot of wisdom."

Mrs. Grainger had bachelor's and master's degrees from BGSU.

She and Mr. Grainger married April 2, 1982. He died Jan. 19, 2005.

Surviving are her daughters, Amy Danforth, Julie Achenbach, and Sara Smith; stepdaughters, Claudia Schroeder and Diane Hanslik; six grandchildren, three stepgrandchildren, and three step-great-grandchildren.

Services will be private because of the pandemic.

The family suggests tributes to Camp Newaygo, Newaygo, Mich; Leelanau Conservancy in Leland, Mich.; Ohio Living Hospice in Toledo, or Mobile Meals of Toledo.

This is a news story by Mark Zaborney. Contact him at mzaborney@theblade.com.