Service, Grace, 1879-1954

Wife of missionary to China representing the Y.M.C.A.

Biographical Information

Grace Josephine Boggs was born to William S. Boggs and Virginia Clarke of Independence, Iowa on November 26, 1879. The family moved to San Bernardino, California, where Mr. Boggs became a banker and Grace spent her childhood. She entered the University of California in 1898 and graduated in 1902. Grace was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta and several literary societies, and was active in the campus Y.M.C.A. Before graduation, she became engaged to a classmate, Robert Roy Service, who was class president, an athlete, a member of Psi Upsilon, and active in various honor societies and campus affairs. They both joined the Student Volunteer Movement, declaring their intention to devote their lives to missionary work. Roy was accepted by the Y.M.C.A. for its foreign work, and sent to the Y.M.C.A. at Purdue University for training; Grace taught high school Latin. After Roy completed his training, they were married in Independence, Iowa on June 30, 1904.

The International Committee of the Y.M.C.A. sent the young couple to Chengtu, Szechwan, in far west China to establish Y.M.C.A. work in that developing center of new, "modern" education. They arrived in Shanghai in late 1905 and reached Chengtu, their final destination, in May 1906. Part of the 5-month journey was a tedious and slow trip up through the Yangtze Gorges by Chinese junk, during which their infant daughter, Virginia, became sick and, with no medical aid available, died.

Except for a home leave during 1915-1916, the Services resided in Chengtu from 1906 to 1921, and where sons, John Stewart (Jack), Robert Kennedy, and Richard Montgomery were born. In 1921, Roy Service was sent by the Y.M.C.A. to open their work in Chungking, also in Szechwan province. Grace, however, had developed a number of health problems, and in 1925 doctors for the Y.M.C.A. objected to her continued residence in the isolated and primitive conditions that existed in Szechwan. The family was transferred to Shanghai, where they resided until Roy died in October 1935. During their years in Shanghai, Grace served as a member of the China National Committee of the Y.M.C.A. and was active in American and international women's activities, including the American Association of University Women and Daughters of the American Revolution.

After her husband's death, Grace lived with her youngest son, Richard, a member of the staff of the American Consulate in Foochow, Fukien. Later, she lived with her eldest son, John, an officer of the American Embassy in Peking, followed by another period with Richard in Tsingtao, Shantung. In 1940, families of American official personnel in China were advised by the State Department to return to the U.S. because of the threatening situation between Japan and the U.S. Grace returned home in the late 1940s and took up residence in Claremont, Calif. She was assigned a lot in Pilgrim Place, a developing retirement community for missionaries and Christian workers, on which was built a small cottage of her own design. Here she lived quietly until her death, following several strokes, on October 20, 1954.

Adapted from biographical information supplied by John Stewart Service