Grace Williams Edwards Owens

Grace Williams Edwards Owens, 86, passed away on February 6, in Florida from natural causes.

Grace is survived by her loving husband of 19 years, Bill Owens; her brother, John Williams, and her three children, Clif Edwards, Mark Edwards, and Zonya Foco, as well as five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren (and counting). She was preceded in death by her parents and sister, Jean Hansen.

Grace was born in 1936, on a small Missouri farm. At age seventeen, ten days after graduating from high school, she married Don Edwards. Sixteen months later she was a mother. And in 1969, they moved to Michigan. Three years later, she and Don began Irish Hills Realty.

This is how most know Grace, through her years of serving Lenawee County as a real estate agent and a broker. Grace was Realtor of the Year in 1996, and Business of the Year in 1998. She was past president of the Irish Hills Chamber of Commerce and the Lenawee County Board of Realtors. She and Don are credited with the successful redevelopment of Loch Erin. Grace and Don divorced in 1987.

In 2001 she retired and became a snowbird, spending her summers in Michigan (Sand Lake) and winters in Florida (The Villages). In 2003 she married Bill Owens. Retirement allowed her to express her talents as an artist, writer, golfer, and runner. As a writer, her childhood stories have been published in a children’s book, Missouri Farm Girl. As a runner, she won many 5ks in her age group, her last being at 80 years of age at Hidden Lake Gardens. 

Grace lives on through her family and the contributions she made to the Irish Hills community, which she loved.

She was a person that lived her name, GRACE.

Notes of comfort can be sent to Bill Owens at 1836 Puerto Bello Drive, Lady Lake, FL 32159, or on Facebook to her children.