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Burlington– Grace Keough, 92, formerly of Bennington, Vermont passed away peacefully on Saturday, September 24, 2022, in Burlington, Vermont.

Grace was born in Camden, New Jersey on August 8, 1930, to Charles S. Johnson and Agnes Dymacek. She graduated from North Bennington High School in 1948 and Faulkner School of Nursing in Boston, Massachusetts as a registered nurse (RN) in 1951.

On August 9, 1952, she married her high school sweetheart Edward “Ed” Keough and the couple made their home in Bennington. Grace worked as a surgical assistant to Dr. Phillip Giddings MD, Chief of Surgery at Putnam Memorial Hospital in Bennington for many years.
Upon retirement in 1982, she and Edward moved to Columbus, North Carolina, and came to love their new home in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains. Widowed in 2013 Grace moved back to Vermont in 2016 to be nearer her family.

Grace will be remembered as a kind and gentle woman who loved her family, her career, the beauty of nature, music, and her lovely gardens. She truly embodied what her name foretold.

Grace is survived by her daughters Connie Keough Prendergast and Dawn Keough Schmidt and her partner Norm Blais of Shelburne, Vermont, her grandsons, and their spouses, Michael E. Prendergast and Katie (Roessler) Prendergast, Daniel B. Schmidt and Laura (Tangen) Schmidt and Jamie B. Schmidt and Meaghan (Rohde) Schmidt, four great-grandchildren, Harper, Barrett, Piper, and Sadie Schmidt and a niece Lynn Bevis of Bennington. A private memorial service will be held in the summer of 2023.

“The kiss of the sun for pardon The song of the birds for mirth

One is nearer God’s heart in a garden Than anywhere else on earth. ”

– Nikola Furlong

Dawn K. Schmidt