Bertha Thelma Gray Obituary - Visitation & Funeral Information

Bertha Thelma Gray was laid to rest on April 28th next to her husband Nathaniel Cheek and her mother Minnie Mae Brown. Born in Ellenton Florida in 1923 Bertha worked on a farm picking vegetable from around 10 years of age. Bertha moved to Baltimore in 1940 where her mother had already been living. She held many jobs from hospitals to hotels before beginning domestic work in the early '50s. She was so beloved by her employers that it became her career for the next 40 years. Though she had no children of her own she helped raise many. And in some cases, helped to raise their children’s children. Many of those kids stayed in touch with her the rest of her life. Bertha heard the calling of Jesus in her early 20's and joined the church in her McCullough St. Neighborhood where she feels she received her true education. She decided to live her life in the Christian way from then on. Bertha would return to Florida to visit her sister Juanita and her cousin Robert (Bobby) Nunn and other family. She never learned to drive so it was often by bus. She loved fishing and cooking and telling a good joke. She enjoyed getting dressed up in fine clothes whether for Sunday Service or a wedding celebration. Bertha could be quite the socialite. But she earned those good times with hard work. Bertha, who for more than half of her life went by the name Thelma, was not one to sit around idle. She always had somewhere to go, something to do, if not on her own job, then helping others with their work. Retirement came hard to Bertha. She often remarked how much she missed working. She was thankful for the daycare opportunities offered to the elderly where she found she had a creative eye and skillful hand for embroidery. And of course, the church always filled her with a sense of purpose. After her husband passed away Bertha moved with her elderly mother into the Green Hill Senior Citizens Home on Violet Ave. That would have been about the time she joined the Good Shepherd Baptist Church on Park Heights Ave where she found friends and Christian fellowship for many more years of her life. Bertha is survived by a niece, Ms. Shirley Jenkins of Braidenton FL, and a God-daughter, Luetta Holmes of Baltimore MD, and adopted God-daughter, Leslie Naditch of Boston MA and many friends.

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Bertha Thelma Gray

June 10, 1923 - April 16, 2022