Grace Eva Reller, a retired schoolteacher and former county resident passed away on Friday, January 31, 2003 at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego, CA. She was 81 years old.

Funeral services will be 11:00 A.M., Saturday, February 15, 2003 at Johnson-Green Funeral Home, Thief River Falls, MN with Reverend Dean Keeling officiating. Burial will be in Greenwood Cemetery, Thief River Falls, MN.

Grace Eva Schulz was born on March 12, 1921 in Radium, MN, the daughter of Paul and Clara (Lenhart) Schulz, who lived in the area more than sixty years. She was the youngest of two daughters, the eldest being Louella Gladys, who later married Russell Drown and moved to San Diego, CA.

Grace Schulz was confirmed on November 1, 1936 at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Radium, MN. She attended Warren High School and graduated June of 1938. She was joined in holy matrimony to Marcus Bernard Reller on November 11, 1944 at the Warren Parsonage. She taught in Marshall County rural schools for nine years.

They lived for three years in Comstock Township, then, purchased a farm in Radium where Marcus continued farming. The couple moved to Chicago in 1952. Grace received her Bachelors Degree in Sociology. Grace graduated with honors from Roosevelt University. Her husband worked in real estate.

Grace taught briefly in Chicago public schools until the arrival on their only daughter, Dawn Renae Reller, born on July 9, 1959.

After her husbands death in 1974, Grace and daughter moved to San Diego, CA, where she worked market research and later for the Area on Aging, serving the senior population.

Grace touched every life that crossed her path. She loved to help people and always had time for others. Her faith in God was very strong and she dedicated her life to her family. She enjoyed good conversation, reading books, and spending time in her garden. Her hearts desire was always to return to Thief River Falls, to the land and the people she loved so dearly.

Grace is survived by her daughter, Dawn Keeling, son-in-law, Dean Keeling, and one grandson, Marcus Paul Brooks, all of San Diego, CA, also her niece, Valeta Keen of San Diego as well as other cousins, nieces and nephews: Myrtle Cassavan of Duluth, MN, Eileen Stenberg of Thief River Falls, MN; one aunt, Evelyn Lenhart of Warren, MN; and two sisters-in-law: Cyrilla Rodekuhr of Thief River Falls, MN and Lucille Nesland of Warren, MN.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Marcus on April 1, 1974; and her parents.