Memorial services for Grace Irene Paulson, age 93, of Albert Lea will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at First Baptist Church in Clarks Grove. The Rev. Jamie Cameron will officiate. Interment will be prior to the service at Clarks Grove Cemetery. To sign the guest book, go to www.bayviewfuneral.com.

Grace passed away on Thursday, May 3, 2012 at St. John’s Lutheran Home.

Grace Irene Paulson was born in Fiscus, Iowa, on Aug. 30, 1918, to LeRoy and Edna Nelson. She lived and worked on the family farm with her five siblings until she moved to Clarks Grove. There she met Philip Paulson. They were married in 1939. She and Phil owned and operated a café in Clarks Grove for several years. Grace was a fulltime homemaker and mother of seven, and in her later years she worked at Good Samaritan Nursing Home. She and Phil were lifelong members of the First Baptist Church of Clarks Grove where Grace played piano and served as Deaconess. Grace was an accomplished seamstress and knitter. She also loved baking and was known throughout her family for her cinnamon rolls and apricot bars. Gardening was one of her favorite pastimes, her specialty being roses. In retirement she knitted baby caps for newborns at Naeve Hospital. Other volunteer activities included helping at the county nurses’ office and mending clothing for residents at the Thorne Crest Retirement Center.

She is survived by her children, Patricia Lyle and husband James of Bemidji; Julie Arnold of Pleasant Hill, Calif.; Mary Ellen Walton of Watkinsville, Ga.; Marcia Hutchins of Atlanta, Ga.; Randy Paulson and wife Joan of Franklin, Tenn.; and Ceny Steven and husband Wayne of Albert Lea. She also leaves behind 14 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, and three siblings, Ruth Dinesen, Lucille Paulsen and Everett Nelson.

Grace was preceded in death by her husband, Philip, in 1977, their first child, Edith Mae, in 1954, and her brothers, Merle Nelson and Lloyd Nelson.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to Mayo Health System Hospice, 1705 SE Broadway, Albert Lea, MN 56007.