March for Life Founder Passes

John Jalsevac : Aug 16, 2012 : LifeSite News

"In January we will march in her memory, in her honor, to save the unborn children to whom she dedicated her life." -Fr. Frank Pavone

REPORTER'S NOTE: While the mainstream media focuses on the passing of radical feminist Helen Gurley Brown this week, a "Joan-of-Arc" in the pro-life movement has passed with little fanfare. Thank you, Nellie Gray for so powerfully impacting on the Kingdom of God on earth. -Teresa Neumann, BCN.

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

Nellie Gray Gray, who was once described by Cardinal Sean O'Malley as the "Joan of Arc" of the pro-life movement . . . Gray founded the march in 1974, and guided its development into a massive annual movement that has inspired copycat events not only in cities across the U.S., but around the world, striking fear into the heart of pro-abortion activists in the process. In 2010, outgoing NARAL President Nancy Keenan recalled her dismay at stumbling on the March for Life after coming out of Union Station. "I just thought, my gosh, they are so young," Keenan said. "There are so many of them, and they are so young."

"Every year since 1974, Nellie Gray has mobilized a diverse and energetic army for life," said Father Pavone, who credited his experience attending the march as a teenager with confirming his decision to become a priest and devote his life to the pro-life cause. "Her own commitment to the cause never wavered. She was a tireless warrior for the unborn and her motto was ‘no exceptions.'"

Though Nellie had begun to show the effects of her nearly 90 years at recent marches, she never failed to show up and to lead the proceedings. In 2008, the then-84-year-old pro-life leader was taken to hospital after tripping and falling while on stage at the March.

But in an interview with LifeSiteNews, Fr. Frank Pavone remembered that, to his astonishment, Gray was present the following morning at a meeting of pro-life leaders, with her head all bandaged up. "It was just symbolic of her entire life. Her commitment to this cause was unstoppable," Pavone said. "Seeing her standing up in that meeting with that patch on her head just said it all."

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."

Pavone recalled that Nellie was in many respects an unwitting founder of an event that was destined to transform the pro-life movement by drawing hundreds of thousands of enthusiastic pro-life advocates to Capitol Hill every year.

"She never expected or planned to start a March for Life. She would often tell me with a humorous recollection, ‘You know father, they just wanted to have a meeting, and some of us came together, and we decided to use my house for the meeting, and we thought we would have one march and that would be it. And before you know it, I was in charge of this March. And it's not something that I wanted or anticipated, but we came together, we did it, and before we know it we had to do it a second time and one thing led to another."

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