Grace Muratore

Grace (Mallozzi) Muratore, long time Kent resident, passed away on July 7, 2014, just six months short of her 99th birthday. Grace was born on January 3, 1916 in Atwater, Ohio. She was married (in 1942) to Frank Muratore, one of the four founding partners of Kent Tree City Mold and Machine Company, and who preceded her in death in 1996. She had two children, Francia Doerfler, residing in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Mary Jo Muratore, residing in Columbia, Missouri. She had three grandchildren, Michael, David, and Joseph Doerfler, whose visits to her home in Twin Lakes were always treasured occasions. She had as well three great-grandchildren, Thomas, Owen and Grace Ellen Doerfler, the children of Michael and Jennifer Doerfler of Raleigh, North Carolina. Because two brothers (Frank and Eugene Muratore) married two sisters (Grace and Irma Mallozzi), she considered her four nephews, Eugene, Gary, Frank, and John Muratore (along with their children and grand-children) as part of her immediate family. She and Irma were as close as twins growing up, and they remained so until Irma's passing in 2006. In addition to her husband Frank, her sister Irma and brother-in-law Eugene, Grace was preceded in death by her mother and father, Mary and John Mallozzi; siblings Philip (and wife Anne), Angelo (and wife Clara), and Margaret Mallozzi, Josephine (and husband James) Delano, Fanny (and husband Mike) Oates; brothers-in-law Albert Muratore (and wife Nina), James Muratore (and wife Josephine); and sisters-in-law Katy Pacino (and husband Carl), and Theresa Corsi.

During the war years and for some time thereafter, Grace worked at the woolen mill in Ravenna, Ohio. One of her favorite hobbies was shopping with her daughters, especially during visits to Raleigh, North Carolina. She also was an avid bowler, and she greatly enjoyed playing euchre with her close friends in Randolph who gathered regularly at Hillside Tavern in Saint Joseph, Ohio. What she held most dear, however, was entertaining family and friends at her home, where just an ordinary day would be transformed into a glorious celebration of life that often went long into the night. Grace lived on her own (driving, shopping, managing her household independently) until the age of 96-1/2, at which time she moved in with daughter Mary Jo in Columbia, Missouri. Her Twin Lakes neighbors, Gerald and Wendy Kline, facilitated matters during this transition period. In her eighties and again in her nineties, Grace battled and defeated breast cancer, the last bout in 2007. Her legacy will surely be her indomitable spirit, her unflinching determination, her refusal to surrender in the face of adversity or to give up on anything or anyone. We will never forget how hard she fought to stay with us, no doubt because she knew just how much we needed her, and how diminished our lives would be when she was no longer among us. She understood only too well the depth of our profound and abiding love, and, therefore, how acute and inconsolable we would be when our time together ran out. Che riposi in pace; you have surely earned your eternal rest. We were blessed to have been so close to you for so long and we are honored to have played a role in your extraordinary life, a life where joy was abundant; regrets mercifully few.

Calling hours will be held 6-8 PM Sunday, July 13th at Bissler & Sons Funeral Home in Kent. Graveside services will be held 11:00 AM Monday, July 14th at Standing Rock Cemetery with Fr. Thomas Acker officiating.