Grace Lorraine Stevenson was born on July 16, 1929, to Alice Edith (Jones) and Wade Hampton Sager in Piedmont, West Virginia.
She graduated from Piedmont High School in 1947, and attended Catherman’s Business School where she received a certificate in office administration.
She held numerous jobs including being a switchboard operator at the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company and West Virginia Pulp and Paper.
During her late teenage years and early twenties, Lorraine competed and won numerous local, regional and state scholarship pageants, including winning the title of Miss Western Maryland, an official preliminary pageant to Miss America. As Miss Western Maryland she met numerous dignitaries including mayors, governors, celebrities and President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
On March 4, 1956, she married Raymond Nelson Stevenson at the United Methodist Church in Cumberland, Maryland. The couple lived in numerous communities throughout their 52-year marriage, including Westernport (MD), New Orleans (LA), Natrona Heights (PA), Emmaus (PA), and Marion (OH).
Lorraine came to faith in Jesus Christ early in her life, and spent most of her life in Christian ministry. She was a member of Berean Baptist Church in Marion for 35 years, where she led a women’s Bible study and prayer group. Lorraine taught Sunday school for over 50 years in multiple churches, and was active in Vacation Bible School, hosted visiting missionaries in the family’s home, and sponsored dozens of charitable and missions-oriented agencies around the world.
Lorraine and Raymond had three sons, Timothy Stevenson (married to Lori Lawson Stevenson, Robbinsville, NJ), Jeffrey Stevenson (Flossmoor, IL) and James Douglas Stevenson (married to Kimberly Stevenson, Columbus, OH). She was a grandmother to Michael Stevenson, Abigail Stevenson, and Nelson Stevenson. She was a step-grandmother to Andrew and Christopher Lawson.
Lorraine is preceded in death by her mother Alice, her father Wade, and her husband, Raymond (May 28, 2008).
Grace Lorraine passed peacefully in the presence of family on September 24, 2015, at the age of 86.
Visitation will be held Sunday, September 27, 2015, from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Boyd-Born Funeral Home, 122 West Columbia St., Marion, OH. A celebration of life service will be held at Berean Baptist Church on Monday, September 28, 2015, at 10:00 a.m. She will be laid to rest with Raymond at Marion Cemetery.
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