Grace Anna Bahr Forseth, 83, of Superior, passed away Tuesday at St. Mary's Hospice in Duluth.
Grace was born on January 28, 1929, in Georgetown, Washington, D.C., daughter of Carl William and Grace Anna (Dunn) Bahr.
A businessman with ties to Washington, Grace's father moved his family to the West Coast when she was five. Grace attended grammar school in San Francisco and was one of the first 100 people to cross the Golden Gate Bridge. After moving to Chicago, Grace attended New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, graduating in 1946. She then attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where she met and married her husband, a fellow English major, Roger Daniels Forseth, on August 14, 1950, the summer before their senior year. In 1951 she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English and French, days before their first child was born.
Throughout her husband's academic career the family lived in Evanston, Carbondale, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans before moving to Superior in 1964. Grace was a housewife who was an accomplished pianist and vocalist, award-winning quilter, skilled cook, and shrewd copy editor. She was also an avid reader—via Kindle, in recent years—whose love of art and literature was established early in her life and continued to its end. In philanthropy, as a member of its Board of Directors, she was recognized by The Recovery Center Inc. for her years of extensive service.
Grace was baptized Catholic but as a young girl chose to convert to the Episcopal Church. She was a devout Episcopalian and lifelong proponent of the Anglican tradition.
She was predeceased by her mother in 1957 and, in 1963, her father, who received burial at Arlington Cemetery for service in WWI that earned him a Silver Star and two Purple Hearts. Her elder brother, Carl William Bahr, Jr., died in California in 2002.
She is survived by her husband, Dr. Roger Forseth, Professor Emeritus at UW Superior; children, William Roger (Lorrie Fox) Forseth, Kristina Marie (Eugene) Johnson, Ellen Dunn (Daniel) Pioro, and Daniel Edward (Toni) Forseth; grandchildren, Cassandra Ellen (Bret) Csencsitz, Johnny Mal Johnson, Sarah Kristina Pioro, Bethany Grace Pioro, Deven John Forseth, Shaye Marie Forseth, and Bria Jean Forseth; great-grandson William Thomas Csencsitz; and step-great-granddaughter Brittany Marie Fox.
Visitation: 10 a.m. until the 11 a.m. Mass of the Ressurection at the church of St. Alban the Martyr Episcopel Church on Saturday February 24, 2012, followed by a reception and interment at Greenwood Cemetery.