Nancy Gray

Nancy Gray, 84, died Thursday, May 26, 2022, at Shepherd of the Valley-Liberty following a long illness.
She was born in Middletown on Aug. 25, 1937, a daughter of Leroy and Lavonne Swigart.
After graduating from Middletown High School in 1955, she started work at the Middletown Journal, where she met the love of her life, Walling E. Gray. They were married Feb. 1, 1958.
In her life, she co-owned her own business (Water Street Emporium in Sandusky), sold her handmade crafts, taught classes in macrame and worked in retail (Elder Beerman in Middletown, the Basket Occasion in Sandusky). However, her primary focus was taking care of her family.
She also was a hands-on volunteer with several organizations. She was an active member of First United Methodist Church in MIddletown. She traveled to Japan with Promises, the church’s musical missionary group, in 1969; played the female lead in the church’s production of “The Music Man”; and she usually could be found in the kitchen whenever there was a church dinner or memorial luncheon.
After living in Middletown all of their lives, she and her husband moved to Sandusky in 1981. She became an active member of Trinity United Methodist Church and worked on many events put on by the Sandusky Register, where her husband was advertising director. 
She served on the board for efforts to restore the G.A. Boeckling passenger boat that transported people between Sandusky and Cedar Point and was a volunteer with the Merry-Go-Round Museum.
She would have described herself as a wife and mother, but she was an artist, a seamstress and a chef. 
Survivors include her son, Andrew Gray and his wife Michelle; two granddaughters, Anna and Alison Gray; and many nieces, nephews and friends.
She was preceded in death by her husband, who died June 24, 1999; and a sister, Marlene Andres.
Private services will be held at a later date. Like her husband, she will be cremated, and their ashes will be scattered together in places that were important to them. 
Arrangements were handled by Joseph Rossi and Sons Funeral Home, Niles.

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