Helen Harden Gravette

Helen Harden Gravette, age 98, passed into the presence of her Savior, Jesus, joining her family and friends on August 9, 2009. Helen was born in Tifton, Georgia on August 12, 1910. She attended Bessie Tift College in Forsyth, Georgia and business school in Atlanta where she remained. She worked most of her adult life, finally as office manager at Emory University Clinic. She was a member of First Baptist Church of Atlanta for 56 years where she was active in adult Sunday school, Senior Adult Choir and the Ukulele Band. She planned many social events there and was always the life of the party. Helen loved to travel and was always ready to go anywhere at anytime. A highlight of her life was a trip to Italy where she was pinched by an Italian man and invited to see his "etchings". She learned to drive when she was 12 and once had a standoff with a mule. She won, hitting the mule out of the way. She lived her final years at the Brian Center nursing home in Canton, Georgia where she was loved and well cared for. Preceded in death by her husbands, H. Clyde Touard and G. Dudley Gravette, she is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Barbara and Joe Mills of Waleska, Georgia; her son and daughter-in-law, H. Clyde "Buddy" Touard, Jr. and Brenda of Columbia, South Carolina; 6 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. There will be a private graveside service Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at Crest Lawn Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the First Baptist Church of Atlanta, Pastoral Care Ministry, 4400 North Peachtree Road, Atlanta, Georgia 30338. The family will receive friends from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at A. S. Turner & Sons