Grace M. Rhodes

1926 - 2015

Grace Mary Longabaugh Rhodes, born July 12, 1926, passed away peacefully Thursday, Dec. 31, surrounded by family. She was raised and educated in Bellevue, and lived across from a park on Teece Avenue. She received her BS in biology at PCW Chatham in 1947, and went on to work at Calgon and the Campbell Moses laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh. She fell in love with John David "Dave" Rhodes, and they were married Dec. 22, 1950. They lived in East Liberty and Dorseyville, before building a home on an old farm in Sewickley, where they lived for 55 years and raised dogs, cats, horses, cows and five children. Grace was a busy mother; she was an active participant in school projects and activities, and ran countless shuttles to and from school for sports, forgotten lunches and missed busses. At a thousand track and cross country meets she always had treats for the team, usually Tootsie Pops. She was an excellent cook, especially noted for her baking, such as the New Year's Pretzel included in the first Three Rivers Cookbook. Grace, or GM "Geem" to many, was a fun-loving, cheerful person who thoroughly enjoyed vacationing at the beach and patiently tolerated camping trips in Canada. She was strong and fit, loved the outdoors and the birds she surrounded her house with, and was a regular in the YMCA pool. Grace was hardworking and generous to others, serving Meals-On-Wheels for many years, volunteering at the Sewickley Valley Hospital gift shop and the YMCA, and giving of her time to help anyone who needed a hand. She is survived by Dave, her loving husband of 65 years; and the families of her five children, David and his wife, Ankie Knuttel, of Storrs, Conn., and their children, Theo, Annelies and Derek, and grandchild, Kenneth; Barbara Marburger, of Lakewood, Ohio, and her children, Stephanie and Anna; John and his wife, Susan, of Dallas, Texas, and their children, Christopher, Megan, Claire and Andrew; Geoff and his wife, Lorrie, of Saxonburg, and their children, Emily and Amber; and Thomas and his wife, Kimberly, of Silver Spring, Md. She was predeceased by her brother, John Longabaugh; and is survived by her brothers, Edward Espey and Thomas; sister-in-law, Marian; and 15 nieces and nephews.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 9, 2016, in the Club House Assembly Room at Masonic Village in Sewickley.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations would be appreciated to the Lymphoma And Leukemia Society (https://donate.lls.org/lls/donate ), Heritage Valley Hospital (http://www.heritagevalley.org/pages/heritage-valley-beaver-foundation), or the Sewickley Library (http://sewickleylibrary.org/donate/). Announcement by COPELAND'S SEWICKLEY.