Vera Grose Webster of Statesville, N.C., passed away on Monday, February 12, at 102 years of age. She will be remembered as a lady of faith, love and service.

Mrs. Webster was born on July 8, 1921, to Joseph Stanley Grose and Ina Steelman on a small tobacco farm in the Lone Hickory area. It was her long-time desire to be a school teacher like her father. After graduating from Harmony High School, she was given a loan by the owners of a small general store in the community to attend teacher’s college.

Vera Grose met Charles Legrand Webster at the Baptist Student Union at Women’s College in Greensboro in the months leading up to World War II. They were married in May of 1943, while he was on leave from service, in a wedding that Charley arranged from a troop ship as it was being chased by a German submarine. They remained deeply dedicated to each other until his death in 2001. She cared for him after his injuries from the war and in his last years after he suffered kidney failure.

Vera and Charley had one son, Charles Reitzel Webster, and one grandson, Jackson Webster. Vera deeply valued her family and was close to her brother, cousins, aunts, and uncles. She loved being a grandmother, and she became a second grandmother to nieces, nephews, and even those she just claimed as grandchildren.

Vera earned a Bachelor of Science Secretarial Administration Degree at the Woman’s College in Greensboro (now UNC-Greensboro), and she began teaching soon after World War II in the Mocksville school system. She was hired by the late Tom Poston to teach at Celeste Henkel High School, where she taught for nine years before transferring to Statesville Senior High School.

Vera and Charley lived in veteran’s housing just off Race Street in Statesville until Charley found a small house on a tiny lot. They bought their house in 1953, and Vera proceeded to fill every available space with flowers using the green thumb she inherited from her mother.

She retired from Statesville High School after 48 years of teaching, and served as a substitute teacher for several years after retirement. Vera was tremendously proud of her students and continued to follow many of their careers throughout her life. She helped introduce students to local businesses and encouraged her students to pursue college degrees. Teaching others did not stop with “retirement,” and she even assisted her caregivers in recent years. It was a testament to her that many of her students have continued to visit her. She was the oldest retired teacher for Iredell County School System.

Vera served the community by volunteering at Iredell Memorial Hospital, serving in a prayer shawls ministry. She learned fiber arts from her mother at an early age and crocheted hundreds of Afghans, scarves and blankets to be given to cancer patients, as well as crocheted caps given to newborn babies. She continued to produce these items into her late 90s, only stopping when her hands developed severe arthritis.

Vera was a loyal member of the Statesville Civitan Club and the General Federation of Woman’s Club of North Carolina. She was proud of the service these organizations provided to her city.

Faith has carried Vera many years and she was proudly a Baptist. She was an active member of First Baptist Church, Davie Avenue, of Statesville, and continued to closely follow church activities even when she was not able to attend.

She was predeceased by her husband Charles L. Webster; her only brother, Beecher Hoyte Grose Sr., and sister-in law, Mary Lee Lentz Grose. Left to cherish her memory are her son, Charles Reitzel Webster of Statesville, and grandson Jackson Webster; nephew Beecher H. (Billy) Grose Jr. of Lexington, Va.; his children, Hannah Beecher Wilkersons, Joanna Rhetts Metzbower, and Alexandra Rhetts Kelly; nephew Roy Neal Grose and his wife Louise Dunlap Grose, and their children David Neal Grose and John Joseph Grose. She is also survived by several cousins.

The family would like to especially honor those who helped Vera face her last years with grace and dignity: Lee Ann and Carolyn, Teresa, Penny, Ann and Summer, Nancy, Beverly, Mary Jane, Lucinda, Donna, and others during the years.

A memorial celebration of life will be held for Vera Grose Webster at 2 p.m. on Sunday, February 18, at First Baptist Church, 815 Davie Avenue, Statesville, NC 28677, with Rev. Dr. Nelson Granade officiating. The family will great friends starting at 1:30 p.m. in Adams Hall prior to the service. A graveside service will be held that same day at 4 p.m. at Sandy Springs Baptist Church, 2930 Sandy Springs Road, Harmony, N.C., in the family plot at the church cemetery.

Instead of flowers, the family suggests that you serve each other. The family suggests donations may be made to: Hospice of Iredell County, Sandy Springs Cemetery Fund, Iredell Christian Ministries, or Fifth Street Ministries.

Troutman Funeral Home is serving the family.