Mary E. Grazier

Mary Esther Grazier was born on November 6, 1922, she was the daughter of Doctor Harry A. Shimer and Margaretta Blackburn Shimer.  The youngest of three siblings, she was preceded in death by her brother Harry A. Shimer Jr. and is survived by her sister Anna Louise Magee of Altoona.  She attended Bedford High School, George School, and the University of Pennsylvania majoring in elementary education.  In 1944 she married Frank E. Grazier who survives.  She had two children:  Frank E. Grazier II of Bedford, and Sandra L. Vanlandingham of Flagstaff, Arizona, along with five grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

Etter, as she was fondly called, participated in many community organizations and events in the 85 years she was a Bedford resident.  She was an active PTA member, member of Bedford Garden Club, judge of floriculture at the Bedford fair for many years, on the committee that created Bedford Fall Foliage Festival, hospital auxiliary children’s board member, and past secretary and treasurer of Dunnings Creek Friends Meeting, member of the National Audubon Society and the American Bluebird Society.  She loved golf, bridge, wild flowers, walks, hiking, cross country skiing, and hunting the elusive morel mushrooms every spring.  But most of all she nurtured and loved her family, grandchildren, great grandchildren and extended family.  Children were the center of her life.  Etter was truly a lovely lady.  She will be sorely missed, but well remembered by her family and friends.

Contributions can be made to Dunnings Creek Friends Meeting, 114 West John Street, Bedford, Pa 15522, or the American Parkinson Disease Association, Inc., 135 Parkinson Avenue, Staten Island, New York 10305.  A memorial service will be held on Saturday, June 26th at the Dunnings Creek Meeting House, in Fishertown at 11:00 a.m.  Arrangements by Timothy A. Berkebile Funeral Home in Bedford, Our online guest book is available at www.berkebilefuneralhome.com.