MATHEWS - Grace Cumming Behal, of 592 Lovers Lane in Mathews, was called home by the Lord on Nov. 9, 2005, at her home, with her family all around her, after a long and valiant struggle with cancer. She was born July 22, 1932, in Lynchburg, to Hamilton Darling Cumming and Marguerite Spencer Cumming. Grace attended the public schools in Newport News, graduated from Mary Washington College at Fredericksburg in 1954, and then pursued study at the University of Texas at Austin, Texas, where she met her future husband, Francis J. Behal. They were married on July 2, 1955, at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Newport News. The couple's home was first in Austin, Texas, then in Augusta, Ga., and finally in Lubbock, Texas, before they moved to Mathews in 2000. Grace was a member of St. Francis Catholic Church in Mathews where she was a Lay Eucharistic Minister and a member of the Pastoral Care Committee and the Liturgy Committee. She was also a member of the Mathews Yacht Club and the Mathews Garden Club. She is survived by her husband, and also by a son, Robert H. Behal and his wife, Carol, of Troy, Ind.; a daughter, Mary B. McFadden of Mathews; a grandson, Eric McFadden and his wife, Kimberly, of Richmond; and two granddaughters, Marguerite Nicole McFadden of Harrisonburg and Candice Elaine McFadden of Abingdon. She is also survived by a sister, Marguerite Parker and her husband, John, of Mathews; seven nieces and nephews; and an aunt, Jean Johns and her husband, Harry, of Yorktown. The Mass of the Resurrection will be celebrated for Grace at 11 a.m. Nov. 12, at St. Francis Catholic Church in Mathews on Lovers Lane, with burial thereafter at the cemetery of the Church of the Visitation in Hartfield. Father John Boddie, Pastor of St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church and Father Robert Nash of Deltaville will officiate. In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests contributions in Grace's memory to the St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church Building Fund, P.O. Box 158, Mathews, VA 23109. Foster-Faulkner Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.

Obituary, Daily Press, November 11, 2005.