Mrs. Bernice G. Gracey, 93, of Colusa, Illinois passed away Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 6:30 A.M. at the Memorial Hospital in Carthage, Illinois.

She was born on December 29, 1917 in Mount Hamill, Iowa, the daughter of Ernest and Nina Hane. On June 25, 1950 she married Kenneth W. Gracey in Garnet, Kansas. He preceded her in death on December 24, 1985.

Bernice was a 1936 graduate of the Kincaid, Kansas High School. She attended Pittsburg Teachers College and graduated from Carthage College. She taught school in Kansas and later at the Nauvoo-Colusa Elementary School for 24 years. She was a member of the Twiddlers Club and the Colusa United Methodist Church where she taught Sunday school. She had resided at the Hancock County Nursing Home for the past 3 years.

She is survived by one niece, Karen Brower of Bowen, Illinois, two nephews, Rick Strausbaugh of Keokuk, Iowa and Byron Strausbaugh of Valley Center, California and several cousins.

Services will be held at 11:00 A.M. Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at the Colusa United Methodist Church with Ron Leonard and David Poland officiating. Burial will be in the Harris Cemetery near Dallas City, Illinois. Friends may call at Banks and Beals Funeral Home in LaHarpe between 2:00 and 8:00 P.M. Monday and also at the church on Tuesday from 10:00 A.M. until time of services. A memorial fund has been established for the Colusa United Methodist Church or the Hancock County Nursing Home.