Grace E. Ford Dance, 99, of Hodgdon Green in Damariscotta, died on Nov. 2.
She was born on April 26, 1910 in Chicago, Ill., the daughter of a car dealership owner, Paul Allen and Florence Maude (White) Ford. Her mother died when Mrs. Dance was a young girl. Noting that Chicago was no place to raise children during the Prohibition, she and her siblings went to live with their grandparents on a farm in Oconto, Wis. After high school graduation she went to work in Detroit for the Statler Hotel and the Detroit Edison Power Company. She also at the time had the distinction of being the first woman to fly aboard an American Airlines airplane.
Mrs. Dance married Fredrick Hazelton in 1931 but was widowed with a small son and became a single parent while maintaining a career as a secretary and bookkeeper for a Chevrolet dealership. Some of the people Mrs. Dance trained are still working at the company and there is a company sponsored scholarship in her name. Mrs. Dance married a second time to Jesse Lee Dance and the couple retired to Florida, where they were together for 18 years. She became president of the community clubhouse and participated in a neighborhood watch program.
Mrs. Dance and her girlfriends celebrated one of her birthdays with a cruise to Hawaii and when they went to see a Don Ho show, the singer brought her on stage for the birthday song. In her 90s Mrs. Dance discovered she had some artistic talent. She was an avid reader, played Bingo and loved chocolate.
Relatives and friends are invited to join the family for a graveside service to celebrate the life of Mrs. Dance 12 p.m., Sun., Nov. 15 at the Weeks Cemetery on Bunker Hill Road in Jefferson.
Should friends so desire, donations may be made in Mrs. Dance’s memory to the Weeks Cemetery, c/o Mrs. Cindy Hunt, Bunker Hill Rd., Jefferson, ME 04348.
Arrangements are under the direction of Smeltzer Family Cremation and Funeral Service, Waldoboro.
