Back in January of 2018 we had a District Convention in Dickinson and I took the synod President to Redeemer Lutheran. On the visit to Redeemer and their children’s center I was suddenly reminded that Glee Grau made beautiful stained glass windows that were so impressive that the folks at Trinity in Drayton commissioned her to make windows for that Church. She was later commissioned to do a memorial window at Zion in Grafton that beautifies our entrance. I finished my blog with these words –
“Mr. Grau passed away years ago and Glee is in a nursing home in Bismarck. These talented Christians left their mark in many churches and the beauty left behind is impressive. They gave us a foretaste of the glory to come and they will be remembered. I was happy to remember what I had forgotten. ”
This window was put together from memories from Sandy Miller O’Keefe of a time when she and her husband Randy Miller and a conversation they had when they saw a marvelous display of God’s glory in the sky by Grand Forks just before he died.
Now I got this from a former member at Trinity.
Glee Grau, 86, formerly of Dickinson, passed away March 13, 2019, surrounded by her family at CHI St. Alexius, Bismarck.
> The fourth of nine children, Glee was born April 3, 1932, to Ingeborg and Ray Atwood and raised on a farm near Tolley.
> With her teaching degree from Minot, Glee first taught in a one-room country school. Later, while teaching in Enderlin, she met North Dakota State University student, Roger Grau. They married June 19, 1955, in Tolley and began a beautiful 61-year journey together, first in Denver and Fort Collins, Colo., and later in Dickinson.
> Always a teacher and artisan, Glee shared her love of creativity with her daughters, Angela, LaVonne and Candace. She enjoyed oil painting, quilting, and volunteering at church when not helping Roger at the Coast-to-Coast store, but her creative soul was always ready for new challenges. In mid-1980s, Glee studied watercolor painting and stained glass.
> Over the next 25 years, Glee shared her faith in God through numerous stained glass windows she created for churches and homes in North Dakota, Minnesota and Idaho, including a 700-piece, cross-shaped window in their home church, Redeemer
Lutheran. > She is survived by three daughters: Angela (Hank) Willenbring, Perham, Minn.; LaVonne (Rex) Ewing, Masonville, Colo.; Candace (Paul) Harron, Bismarck; and three siblings: Raymond Atwood, Lela Peterson and Larry Atwood. She was preceded in death by her husband, Roger, in June 2016.
> Memorials may be directed to Martin Luther School in Bismarck or the Alzheimer’s Association Minnesota-North Dakota chapter.
> Funeral will be in Bismarck at 2 p.m. CDT Friday, March 29, at Bethel Lutheran
Church. Visitation one hour prior; reception following. > Arrangements are with Ladbury Funeral Service, Dickinson.
> www.ladburyfuneralservice.com.
I am sorry to miss the funeral but appreciate the announcement.
