BREAKING: March for Life founder Nellie Gray passes away

Life Site News ^ | 8-13-12 | John Jalsevac

[ReformationFan]

One of the leading lights of the pro-life movement in the United States has gone out. Nellie Gray, the charismatic founder of the annual March for Life, the largest annual pro-life event in the country, passed away over the weekend, and was discovered in her apartment earlier today.

Gray was an ubiquitous figure at the pro-life march, her slight frame standing at the podium at stage centre, introducing the many luminaries who addressed the crowd during the rally before the march.

Gray founded the march in 1974, and guided its development into a massive annual movement that has inspired copycat marches not only in cities across the U.S., but around the world.

“Every year since 1974, Nellie Gray has mobilized a diverse and energetic army for life,” said Father Pavone, who said he has attended every march since his first one in 1976. “Her own commitment to the cause never wavered. She was a tireless warrior for the unborn and her motto was ‘no exceptions.’ “

Jim Hughes, vice president of International Right to Life, who was a regular attendee at the March for Life an a longtime friend of Nellie’s, described her as “a dynamite personality.”

“She served as a great example to all of us of how to pro-life message out to people,” Hughes told LifeSiteNews.com. “She believed in direct action, and the March for Life was her direct action. She wanted to make sure that all people that joined the pro-life movement understood the first principles, that no compromise meant no compromise with the babies.”

“She was a woman that was so determined that every little baby that died was on her watch, and she wanted to work as hard as she possibly could and with as much ingenuity to change the situation.”

“She has left a tremendous legacy and she will be greatly missed,” he said.

Developing…

[ReformationFan]

RIP to a great leader in the prolife movement.

[exit82]

Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

May the name Nellie Gray be honored by all some day as one who fought for the most innocent of all human beings.

[mlizzy]

She’ll have quite the welcoming in heaven. Is it 60 million now?

[Mortrey]

She’s gone to her great reward, God bless her.
Let’s hope there’s another to walk in her footsteps.

[Brian Kopp DPM]

Réquiem ætérnam dona eis, Dómine,
et lux perpétua lúceat eis.
Requiéscant in pace. Amen.

[Salvation]

Ping!

[fieldmarshaldj]

RIP.

[netmilsmom]

Can you just imagine all those kids running up to her laughing, giggling and hugging to welcome her home?

That would be my heaven. I hope that the babies we couldn’t save would meet me with all the Yellow Life balloons we sent skyward!

[LibLieSlayer]

GOD bless her soul.

LLS

[dandiegirl]

Ha, Nellie Gray was my grandmother’s name.

[Steelers6]

Nellie Gray, Thank you for your devotion to God & Jesus’s work. You took up your cross and now you get your reward in heaven!

[PeevedPatriot]

Thanks for posting this. Rest in peace, Nellie, dear servant of God! May your loved ones who survive be shielded from the hateful rants proaborts will be spouting in the coming days.

[OrangeHoof]

Truly sad that she has passed away without seeing that wicked court decision overturned. RIP.

[married21]

Polar opposite of Helen Gurley Brown, also deceased.

[LibLieSlayer]

Was she this woman?

LLS

[NYer]

From Priests for Life

Fr. Frank & Nellie Gray at the 2012 March for Life

Miss Nellie Gray, Founder of the March for Life, has died.“Nellie Gray and the March for Life had a most profound effect on my life,” said Father Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life. In 1976, when he was a senior in high school, Father Pavone went to the March for Life with his mother and grandmother. Although he had been quietly considering the priesthood before that, the March cemented both his vocation and his passion for pro-life issues.

“Every year since 1974, Nellie Gray has mobilized a diverse and energetic army for life,” said Father Pavone, who has attended every march since his first one. “Her own commitment to the cause never wavered. She was a tireless warrior for the unborn and her motto was ‘no exceptions.’ “

After his ordination in 1988, Father Pavone was assigned to a parish in Staten Island, NY. Every year he led a busload of parishioners to the March for Life. He took over as national director of Priests for Life in 1993, and the following year, attending the event in his new capacity, Miss Gray invited him to say the opening prayer at the March for Life Convention that annually precedes the March.

In 2008, the National Pro-Life Religious Council, which Father Pavone serves as president, presented Miss Gray with its Pro-Life Recognition Award. Later that day, Miss Gray tripped and fell on the stage at the opening rally for the March and had to be taken to the hospital with a head injury.

“As a colleague in national pro-life leadership, Nellie was always an inspiration to the rest of us,” Father Pavone said. “Her devotion was on display that same year, 2008, when, despite being in the hospital during the March for Life, she nevertheless was present at all all-day meeting of national leaders the very next morning, with a patch on her head.”

Every year since its founding in 2003, Miss Gray invited the women of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign to stand on the rally stage holding signs that said, “I Regret My Abortion,” and she arranged for a larger group of post-abortive men and women from Silent No More to be in the vanguard of the March.

Dee Becker, Nellie, Georgette & Janet

“We are so grateful that Nellie Gray shared our vision of Silent No More, and recognized that the women who have had abortions speak with unquestioned authority about the ways they have been harmed by this choice,” said Janet Morana, executive director of Priests for Life and co-founder of Silent No More. “Every year more women and men come to march and to share their testimony. Nellie Gray helped make that possible for us.”

Miss Gray is also credited for realizing that African-American pro-life leaders had to become more vocal and visible in the fight for life.

“Nellie Gray knew that abortion took a heavy toll from the black community and she urged us to lend our voices to the fight against this terrible injustice,” said Dr. Alveda King, director of African-American Outreach for Priests for Life. “She was a visionary.”

Bryan Kemper, founder of Stand True Ministry and director of Youth Outreach for Priests for Life, said: “My heart is broken by the loss of Nellie Gray, a true pro-life hero and role model. At the same time I celebrate that Nellie is with our Lord who she loved so dearly. I have had the honor of working with Nellie for years and every time I March in DC in January, I know she will be watching over us and praying for us. Nellie Gray, I will miss you dearly.

The 2013 March for Life will mark the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision, and the 39th anniversary of the March.

“It was an anniversary that broke Nellie Gray’s heart every year, and every day,” Father Pavone noted. “In January we will march in her memory, in her honor, to save the unborn children to whom she dedicated her life.”

To offer your spiritual bouquet, your promise of prayers and to share your memories of Nellie go to http://www.priestsforlife.org/data/prayer_request.aspx

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[dandiegirl]

No, she died at the ripe old age of 104 8 years ago.

[jwalsh07]

God bless ya Nellie, you did the Lords work here on Earth and now you can enjoy Heaven.

[LibLieSlayer]

I am sorry for your loss but what an amazing age to reach!

LLS

[annalex]

Lord Jesus, rest with the saints Thy servant Nellie in Thy loving embrace.

Send forth laborers, o Lord, to defeat the Row v. Wade regime and bring this country to penance.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, amen.