On Saturday June 4, 2022 Grayce Spence Marler, loving wife and mother, passed peacefully at home surrounded by family and friends. She was born on October 20, 1921 in Brooklyn, New York.

She developed a love for performing while singing in the church choir and she had the most beautiful soprano voice on the face of the planet. Grayce became a singer and dancer on Broadway and was in the original Broadway casts of The Red Mill, Brigadoon and Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate.

After moving to Los Angeles, California with then husband, Dr. Richard Hughes, she spent several years raising her daughter, and taking care of her family. Soon many of her New York theater friends began moving to Los Angeles to work in the growing television industry. Grayce found herself fielding offers for roles and working in many popular shows like The Brady Bunch, Barnaby Jones with Buddy Ebsen, Gunsmoke and McCloud with Dennis Weaver, Charlies Angels, T J Hooker, Dynasty, Trapper John, M.D., Eight is Enough, and many more.

Grayce married Charles Marler in 1991 and they moved to Charlotte, North Carolina. As it turns out, Dino De Laurentiis had built a studio in Wilmington, North Carolina where Andy Griffith was filming his series, Matlock. She auditioned and got the recurring role of Judge Drake.

In addition to TV shows, Grayce appeared in several movies including Cannonball Run, with Burt Reynolds, The Karen Carpenter Story, A Mothers Right: The Elizabeth Morgan Story with Patricia Neal and Bonnie Bedelia, and HBO's Warm Springs… to name a few. She performed with such actors as Elizabeth Taylor, Vanessa Redgrave, Fred Astaire, Carrol O'Connor, Jacqueline Bisset, and Jason Robards.

Grayce had a fondness for:

* The scent of gardenias wading in shallow crystal.

* Broadway musicals and theater, (she was never so poshy that she had to spell it theatre).

* A "hummingbird's wings" Cosmo. A cosmo that looks and tastes delicate but creeps up on you so fast, you never see it coming.

* Mourning Doves nesting on the patio.

* Rice cakes with peanut butter.

* The Kentucky Derby.

* An actor's superb performance demonstrating mastery of their craft.

* The siren song of an empty dance floor and a pair of purrrrfect strappy heels.

* Lifelong friends… tooooo many to mention.

Grayce was a devout Catholic who converted to Catholicism later in life and remained faithful and devoted throughout. She had a lighting quick wit as well as the Midas touch with everything she ventured. Grayce was a force of nature… the wind beneath your wings.

Grayce is survived by her dearly beloved family: husband Charles Marler, her daughter Mari Hughes, two nieces and nephews-in-law Lorie and (Bobby) Dawson and Lynn and (Thomas) Sowell a great-niece Shannon and (Lloyd) Young and their two children Jacob and Emilie, great-nephew Spence and (Shaundra) Sowell and their blended family Blake, Brantley and namesake Finley Grayce, first -cousin Murray and (Ann) Gabriel second-cousins Mark Gabriel, Colin Gabriel, Richard Gabriel, Emma Gabriel, Peter and (Yvonne) Coutts Anne Bennett and Andrew Coutts, third-cousins Owen Coutts, Sarah Korischar, David Bennett, Lesley Bennett, Kate Coutts-White and Max Coutts.

Grayce is predeceased by her parents Samuel and Marie Spence, beloved brother William (Bill) Spence, sisters-in-law Edith Spence and Thelma Hughes and first-cousin Kathleen and (Peter) Coutts, and second-cousin John Bennett.

A Celebration of Life will be held on July 16, 2022 at Becker Funeral Home 806 West Minneola Avenue Clermont, Florida. Friends are welcome for visitation with the family at 10am. The service will follow at 11am.

The family gratefully declines flowers, but prayers, condolences, and memories are gladly accepted at www.beckerfamilyfuneral.com

Donations to https://entertainmentcommunity.org in the name of Grayce Spence Marler are greatly appreciated.