Grace Virginia Bacon Ferrier
Grace Virginia Bacon Ferrier of Osage County died Saturday, Feb. 26, 2011, at St. Mary's Health Center in Jefferson City. She was 97.
Mrs. Ferrier was born Feb. 28, 1913, near Linn, to George and Jennie (LeFevre) Bacon. She married Buell Ferrier in 1956.
In 1931, Mrs. Ferrier graduated from Belle High School. She then went on to earn a teaching degree from Central Missouri State Teachers College. Mrs. Ferrier worked as a teacher for 43 years.
Twenty of those years were spent in rural schools. After her husband died in 1962, she taught for one year at Westphalia before moving to Kirkwood, where she worked until retiring in 1974.
Mrs. Ferrier then returned to the Bacon family farm in rural Osage County. She first moved to the farm when she was 7, and after retiring, considered the farm home for the rest of her life.
While on the farm, Mrs. Ferrier wrote detailed stories of her life. She penned the stories on yellow legal sheets, eventually combining them into two books of memoirs. The first, "Teacher, Teacher, I Done It! I Done It! I Done Done It!" was published in 1986 and the second, "Post Oak Sprouts Along Belly Ache Creek," in 2001.
The Society of Midland Authors awarded her first book First Place for Best Nonfiction in 1987.
The award and recognition were not as important to her as maintaining her friendships. Mrs. Ferrier enjoyed having company over to the farm; when they left, she always reminded them to "come any time."
Mrs. Ferrier is survived by two step-children, Fern Ferrier Manley of Linn, and Dan Ferrier and wife, Bobbie, of Centertown; five nieces, Yvonne Skouby of Columbia, Anna Slawson of Maryville, Tenn., Jennie Peth of Sappington, Debra Sheetz of Osceola, Iowa, and Barbara Wiedenhaft of Oskalossa, Iowa; ten great-nieces and great-nephews, and their children.
Her parents; husband, Buell Ferrier; an older sister, Mae Bacon Leach; three brothers, George, Ellis and Charles Bacon; and one niece, Kimberly Bacon, died earlier.
Services were held March 2 at St. John's United Methodist Church in Linn.
Tributes can be made to the Osage County Historical Society, 402 E. Main Street, Linn, MO, 65051, or to St. John's United Methodist Church, 920 E. Main Street, Linn, MO, 65051, in care of Morton Chapel.
