ATLANTA

Vera Grice, 101, the 'mayor' of Kirkwood's Clay Street

By KAY POWELL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/11/08    https://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/obits/stories/2008/03/10/grice_0311.html

Up at 5 a.m. daily and ever watchful over her Kirkwood neighborhood,

101-year-old Vera Grice was known as the mayor of Clay Street for good reason. Out sweeping her sidewalk by 8 o'clock every morning, Mrs. Grice had high standards for the neighborhood where she lived for 45 years. She expected everyone to adhere to her standards.

Courtesy of Jeanie Davis

In her trademark ensemble of beret and sunglasses, Vera Grice (right) accompanied Kirkwood neighbor Jeanie Davis to City Hall to testify to Ms. Davis' good intentions in requesting a code variance to add on to her house.

"She liked things to be a certain way," said her neighbor Jeanie Davis. "If people didn't keep their yards up, she would tell them or call the city."

"Miss Vera watched out for everybody. She knew everything going on on Clay Street, and if she didn't like it, she would make sure it stopped," said her friend Ella Bailey of Lawrenceville.

Mrs. Grice, Ms. Davis said, was the key to her acceptance in the neighborhood. "People know me without me knowing them," Ms. Davis said. "She was talking me up."

Mrs. Grice had a funny laugh and a good attitude and a feisty side, she said. One night, when Mrs. Grice heard a prowler in her free-standing garage, she aimed her rifle out the window at him, and that was the end of that.

"She was so perky," Ms. Davis said.

The funeral for Mrs. Grice, who died at DeKalb Medical Center March 4, is at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Meadows Mortuary.

Mrs. Grice made Ms. Davis her first sweet potato pie, and Ms. Davis stocked her neighbor's freezer with ice cream and took her to eat at Piccadilly Cafeteria on holidays.

Wearing her outing ensemble — a beret and sunglasses — the petite black centenarian entered on her cane gripping the arm of the taller, blonde Ms. Davis and ready to have some fun.

"On Mother's Day, she would tease people in line with us telling them I was her daughter," Ms. Davis said.

Mrs. Grice was in the know about what was going on in the city as well as in her neighborhood. She read everything that came into her house and watched the news on television, Ms. Bailey said.

"When I needed a city code variance to build on to my house, she went to Atlanta City Hall with me — testifying about my good intentions," Ms. Davis said. "If my dumpster sat in the street on trash day, she pulled it up the driveway."

"She was a high-end lady," Ms. Bailey said. "She never had to want for anything." Mrs. Grice bought her wardrobe at Atlanta's most fashionable shops and furnished her house with antiques.

After her husband, Eugene Grice, who worked for the Georgia Power Co., died 22 years ago, Mrs. Grice kept looking forward. "She never liked to talk much about the past," Ms. Davis said.

Mrs. Grice had a sharp mind, was a good conversationalist, had a positive outlook, took life in stride and laughed all the time, Ms. Bailey said. She cooked her own meals and had an expanding network of friends who drove her wherever she needed to go and helped with heavy yard work. She offered every guest a Coca-Cola and often repaid kindnesses with a meal.

She enjoyed picnics, baseball games and cruises with her friend Lucy Mae Virden, especially after they were widowed. "She and my mother were just home ladies, but they would go to a little club of a night," said Bernice Virden of Atlanta.

"She did love life like it was golden," Ms. Bailey said.

Survivors include a stepdaughter, Emma West of Palmetto; and a stepson, Eugene Grice of Fairburn.