GRANT, Juanita S. (1909-2003)

GRANT

Posted By: Ann Bowler (email)
Date: 1/30/2012 at 12:42:26

Juanita Grant was born 12 Apr 1909 to Charles Frederick Porter and Susan Mary Hoover.

Nina (Porter) Grant
Juanita "Nina" (Porter) Grant died on Wednesday, (October 29, 2003) at Duncaster in Bloomfield. Born in New Virginia, IA, in 1909, and named Juanita, she grew up in Des Moines with her parents and two brothers. A graduate of Drake University, with honors in History, she taught for two years in a one-room school in Beach, IA, a job she thoroughly enjoyed. In her second year of teaching she became principal as well as teacher, and was much loved by students who had driven away two teachers before her. She left teaching to marry Donald Grant, a young newspaper reporter. In 1935 their daughter, Ann, was born. The family spent a year in Cambridge, MA, where Donald was a Neiman Fellow, and then a year in Washington D.C. When her husband went overseas as a war correspondent in Europe, Nina returned to Des Moines. Upon his return, the family moved to St. Louis, MO, where they lived until 1960, then to New York when her husband was asked to cover the United Nations. Nina was devoted to her husband and his work, but when their marriage ended in 1965, she moved to Boston, MA. For the next ten years she lived on Beacon Hill and walked to work at a law firm, where she developed and then managed their legal records department. When she retired she moved to Hartford to be near her family. A member of Asylum Hill Congregational Church, she made many friends there, as she had done wherever she went. Nina was much loved for her warmth, wit, and sympathetic nature. She read widely, and enjoyed the arts, especially music; she was an accomplished pianist. Her eye for interior design was outstanding, and she made her surroundings beautiful where ever she lived. In 1987, she moved to Duncaster in Bloomfield. She is predeceased by her parents and brothers, and by her grandson, Jon Davidoff. Her surviving family are her daughter, Ann and son-in-law, Frank Davidoff; her granddaughters, Jennifer Miglus and Nina Bixler; and great grandchildren, Michael Rutberg, Jessica Miglus and Cynthia Bixler, all in the Hartford area. A memorial service will be held in Duncaster's meeting room on Nov. 15, at 3:30 p.m. Instead of flowers, donations in Nina Grant's name may be sent to The Alzheimer's Association, 225 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1700, Chicago, IL 60601-7633.

Published in The Hartford Courant on November 6, 2003