Martha Stone Grove

Martha Stone Grove of Wilmington passed away peacefully on October 18, 2010.

Born in 1923 in Augusta, Georgia, she was eldest daughter of William Alexander Stone and Jessie Cheatam Stone of Louisville, Georgia where she grew up. She attended Agnes Scott College and in 1943, joined the US Navy Waves. She was stationed in Miami, Florida where she met her husband, Lt. Commander Russell Brown Grove who predeceased her in 1974. Lifelong residents of Coconut Grove, Miami, the Groves were active in business, civic and social affairs including the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club, the Viscayans, the Ransom Everglades School and the Lowe Art Museum. A vibrant member and volunteer of Fairchild Tropical Gardens, Mrs. Grove helped collect and identify tropical seeds and seedlings for many years. A voracious reader and dedicated lover of books and words, she gave many hours reading Books for the Blind. A Gray Lady at Jackson Memorial Hospital, she brought books and magazines to patients and children for whom she held a special love as they for her. Her church community, the Chapel of the Venerable Bede, was an important part of her life and heart. She studied painting and developed a unique primitive yet contemporary style. Mrs. Grove will be remembered for her keen intellectual standards, her individual sense of fashion and avant-garde design, her appreciation for beauty in nature’s design and color, her innovative and daring culinary skills and her enthusiastic interest in the Arts. In 2000, Mrs. Grove left her beloved Coconut Grove and moved to Wilmington, NC to be near her daughter and family.

She is survived by her sister, Alexa Stone Smith of Farragut, TN and will be dearly missed by her daughter, Martha Grove Williams and husband Jim of Wilmington, NC; her daughter Mallory Grove Harrison of Concord, MA; granddaughter Cameron Williams Uher and husband Paul of Charlotte, NC; grandsons William and Alexander Harrison of Concord, MA and great granddaughter, Julia Cameron Uher of Charlotte, NC.

The family extends special thanks and enormous gratitude to Dr. Marsha Fretwell and her nurse practitioner, Tammy Arms as well as the many wonderful and caring staff of Davis Health Care Center and Hospice.

Burial service will be held on Thursday, October 21 at 10:30 AM in the St. Francis Memorial Garden of St. James Parish.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to Davis Care Community or the Ability Garden of the Arboretum.

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Wilmington Burial and Cremation Service, 1535 S 41st Street, Wilmington, NC 28403 910.791.9099