Veva Chloe Hammack Gritz died at the age of 100 in Fort Worth, Texas, on November 11, 2017. She was born on September 17, 1917, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was the eldest child of Thomas Edward Hammack and Ida Veva Perryman Hammack. She grew up in Sands Spring and Tulsa. She made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ at age tw...[more]
e. She participated in church life as a pianist for worship services and as a teacher of children and young people at North Trenton, Nogales Avenue, and Immanuel Baptist Churches.
Chloe graduated from Tulsa Central High School in 1935. After her father's death in 1937, she worked as a bookkeeper and secretary to support her mother and younger brother and sister.
Chloe's life focused on being a helper and later a homemaker. In 1947, she married Jack L. Gritz and shared in his ministry when he pastored the First Baptist Church, Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and when he served as editor of the Baptist Messenger (the statewide newspaper of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.) She served as leader in the children's ministry and was active in the WMU at Trinity Baptist Church, Oklahoma City. In the early 1970s, she coordinated the church's clothing distribution ministry.
Chloe moved to Fort Worth, Texas, in 1985 after her husband's death. She was a member of Gambrell Street and University Baptist Churches. Sundays were the highlight of her week because she spent the day with her son, his wife, and her granddaughter. She lived in recent years in Garden Terrace Nursing Facility.
Chloe is survived by son Paul L. Gritz and his wife Sharon of Fort Worth, Texas, granddaughter Lydia Ruth and her husband Taylor Whitley of Stuttgart, Germany, brother, Lane Hammack and his wife Claudine of Sapulpa, Oklahoma, sister Lois Mae Floyd also of Sapulpa, and nephew Daryl Hammack of Norman, Oklahoma.