North Carolina Pastor’s Wife Is 109 Today
Albermarle, N.C.—Grace Hatley Comer, the widow of a Church of God pastor, is celebrating her 109th birthday today.
Sister Grace, who has been nicknamed “Amazing Grace,” lives in Albermarle, N.C. at Trinity Place Senior Care Community, where she still plays the piano to the delight of the residents.
Grace Comer
Born the sixth of ten children on February 21, 1910, Grace recalls her daddy hooking up the horse and buggy for the family to attend the Anderson Grove Church. She was saved at an early age and baptized in a creek. She would walk two miles to attend a one-room school that had one teacher. Homework was done by the light of the fireplace and oil lamps.
It was at a neighborhood “corn-shucking” that Grace met Ernest Comer. It was love at first sight for Elmer. They married on April 10, 1934. Elmer and Grace are the parents of three children, six grands, seven great-grands and three great-great-grandchildren.
Ernest was called to the ministry at age 40 and together, Ernest and Grace evangelized before accepting their first pastorate at Big Oak Church. Later they moved to Jamestown where they built and pastored the Jamestown Church of God. Grace played the piano and sang. Ernest retired from the Jamestown Church after suffering a heart attack. They eventually moved to Albermarle where Ernest died at the age of 79. Grace continued her ministry at home where she would cook Sunday dinners for her family.
Grace’s daughter Patricia said, “Mom has always been a great mom and a role model of great faith teaching her family to love God.”
“She is perhaps the oldest living Church of God member,” stated Dr. Ken Bell, administrative bishop for the Church of God in Western North Carolina. “We can all learn from her example of a long life well lived in service to the Lord.”
Happy Birthday, Grace Comer!
