Grace Harding Harbison passed away peacefully on November 23, 2024, in Lebanon, Tennessee following a joyful and adventurous life dedicated to her family and teaching others.
A loving wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, Grace was born in Nashville on November 29, 1927, and was a descendant of Middle Tennessee’s earliest settlers, giving her an enduring sense of place and family.
She is preceded in death by her parents, James Bell Harding and Lucy Bell Hagan Harding of Wilson County Tennessee, and her husband of over sixty years, Finley Wren Harbison from Dickson, Tennessee.
Left behind to cherish her memory are her son, Colonel James E. Harbison USMC (Retired) and his wife Commander Elizabeth Hodgson Harbison M.D. EM USN (Retired), and her daughter, Lieutenant Colonel Grace Louise H. Buell USA (Retired) and her husband Major David Allen Buell USA (Retired); her five grandchildren, Kathleen G. Harbison, Laura E. Harbison, Captain Keith G. Buell, USA (Retired) and wife Kira, and Margaret B. Couch and husband Jacob B. Couch, Dr. Gregory J. Harbison M.D. and wife Kathy Demmon; and two great-grandchildren, Brooke and Maisie Demmon-Harbison.
Grace’s earliest memories were of her childhood home at the foot of the Tennessee State Capitol. Her family moved to the Belmont-Hillsboro neighborhood in 1933 where she attended Eakin Elementary School, Calvert Middle School, and West High School through tenth grade. Grace graduated from Ward-Belmont Preparatory School in 1946. Having a gifted voice, she studied at Ward-Belmont Conservatory of Music and Ward-Belmont College, graduating in 1948, and continued to Vanderbilt University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1950. Finding her calling as a teacher, Grace completed her Master of Arts in Education at George Peabody College for Teachers in 1952 with additional postgraduate studies at the University of Southern California. She returned to George Peabody College completing all coursework for an Education Doctorate by 1973.
Her career began in Davidson County Schools, teaching 8th grade at Richland School from 1950 to 1952. The University of California Los Angeles selected Grace to teach a UCLA 6th grade demonstration class at the Ramona School, Bellflower District, Los Angeles from 1952 to 1954. “Miss Harding’s Model Class” was featured in a full-page education special of the Sunday Edition of the May 1954 Los Angeles Times as the optimal teaching strategy to motivate young students.
Expanding her horizon West, Grace applied to and was selected by the Department of the Army to teach 7th grade at the Yokohama American High School in Japan from 1954 to 1955, giving an opportunity to travel in post-World War II Japan, the Republic of China, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Singapore. In response to her educational outreach, Grace received an invitation from the Republic of Columbia’s Ambassador to Japan for her class to spend a day on a Columbian Naval Vessel in Yokosuka Harbor. This event triggered a feature story in the Columbian newspapers on American education and the good relations between Columbia and the United States. The story of American students attending class on a Columbian Frigate, refitting in a Japanese harbor on return from Korean sea duty with the US Navy and the United Nations, went on to capture worldwide media attention.
In a time before reliable overseas air travel, Grace traveled home from Japan with nine other Department of the Army school teachers on a military troop ship for soldiers returning from Korean service. As the only female passengers, the teachers dined with the ship’s Captain in his executive wardroom with a small group of embarked officers selected by the Captain. During dinner, Grace met a charming young Army Lieutenant from Dickson, Tennessee, Finley Wren (Herb) Harbison. After meeting on a troop ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Grace and Herb married early the next year in Tennessee.
While raising her two young children and supporting Herb, Grace substituted in schools at Danville, IL, Richmond, VA, and Nashville, Tennessee. She returned to fulltime teaching in 1963 with Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, and taught at Julia Green School, Glencliff High School, and then Wright Middle School, where she taught English, Mathematics, and Humanities for the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades for 23 years. In 1976, she wrote an application for a $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant, winning for Wright Middle School the first National Endowment for the Arts educational grant in Tennessee history. She also sponsored the Wright Middle School Red Cross Club, which was recognized by the Red Cross as the best Red Cross Club in Nashville.
Grace was a life member of the National Education Association, a member of the Middle Tennessee Education Association, a Representative to the Tennessee Education Association and President of the Tennessee Education Association for three years. She was a life member of the National Council of Teachers of English and was a National Delegate to the Council from 1981 to 1984. After 42 years of teaching, Grace retired in 1992.
Grace resolutely believed in serving others. Her family heritage led to a long membership in the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities and life membership in the Tennessee Historical Society. Respecting her Harding ancestors, she volunteered at the Belle Meade Historic Site for forty years and served as Belle Meade’s President from 1981 to 1984. Grace was also a member of the Caney Fork Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution and served as its Chapter Recording Secretary.
Supporting Herb’s legal career, Grace was a member of the Tennessee Bar Auxiliary and served as Treasurer. From Herb’s civil engineer career, she worked tirelessly in the Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers Auxiliary and was President from 1997 to 1999. Her civic engagement included singing as lead soloist for the Veteran’s Administration Hospital Chapel Service in Nashville for twenty years, as a worker for The Wills Center in the early 1960s, and as the Secretary for the Women’s Society of Christian Service at Belmont United Methodist Church.
After retiring to her family farm, Grace co-chaired the Commercial and Industrial Exhibits for the Wilson County Fair for ten years and was selected as Emeritus Chair in 2017. She served as a board member for Fiddler’s Grove Historic Village from 2007 to 2017 and was instrumental with the move of the Tuckers Gap Railroad Station from her mother’s family farm to Fiddler’s Grove.
Throughout her professional and volunteer life, Grace was most of all a loving, hands on Mom, giving her children every possible opportunity for education, development, and spiritual growth. Church, choir, horseback riding, piano, chess, theater, travel, school, sports, camp – Grace lovingly encouraged and critiqued to open every door possible. For her Grandchildren, she was always Gram, traveling often to cover her children’s frequent military deployments. Gram’s arrival always meant wonderful stories, extra help on homework and a mini vacation.
A lifelong Methodist, Grace followed God’s path to live fully, love passionately and serve her students and community completely. She embodied the best of The Dash by Linda Ellis: “Between when we arrive and the date we go away, there exists a horizontal line that captures every single day… a dash… to focus on what matters… to smile and love with all we’ve got… for how you spend this life will someday be defined by everything that is remembered in the dash of love you leave behind…”
Grace Harding Harbison – Mom, Gram, and Great-Gram – lived a dash of love that will be remembered.
Visitation will be held from 12 to 2 p.m. on Saturday, December 7, 2024, at Ligon and Bobo Funeral Home in Lebanon, Tennessee. A memorial service will follow at 2 p.m. with interment at the Goshen Cemetery, Bellwood, Tennessee.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the Wilson County Veterans Museum, or Fiddler’s Grove Historic Village, Wilson County, Tennessee.
LIGON & BOBO FUNERAL HOME of Lebanon (615) 444-2142 www.ligonbobo.com
For more obituaries visit https://wilsoncountysource.com/obituaries/
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