COLUMBUS
Ilene B. Emma Porter (Gratop) entered the gates of heaven on October 18, 2021 in Columbus, Indiana.
She was born in Oak Harbor, Ohio to the late Iva Gratop and Albert Gratop on March 6, 1941. From an early age she developed a strong work ethic working on the family farm milking cows before the sun came up.
She developed into a veracious reader and lifelong learner and singer. She had the uncanny ability to recite the words to most every hymn in the church hymnal.
She was a very sweet and loving mother, sister, grandmother and great-grandmother. She was also a pillar of strength and the rock of her family. She raised 4 intelligent strong- willed boys which is a testament to her patience, kindness and relentlessness to put up with their antics. She never lost her positive attitude, mental and emotional
strength as she battled Parkinson’s disease for the past 25 years.
Ilene graduated from Oak Harbor High School in 1959. She then went on to further her education at the Flower Hospital in Toledo, Ohio and became a registered nurse. After graduating, she and three other nurses decided to relocate and take their first nursing jobs in California. She met her husband, Jay, there at a Methodist church in Santa Barbara. God had his hand in these women’s lives because all three nurses met and married their husbands at the same church. She married Jay on October 24, 1965.
In 1974, the family moved back to Oak Harbor, Ohio to raise their 4 boys. She moved from Oak Harbor to Columbus, Indiana in 2003 to be closer to her grown children and finished her earthly life there.
She was a member of St. Paul United Church of Christ in Oak Harbor, LaPointe United Methodist Church in Oak Harbor and Sandy Hook United Methodist Church in Columbus, Indiana.
Ilene was preceded in death by her siblings Alice Skinner, Julius Lieske, Charles Lieske, Mirvel Tack and Ruel Lieske. She is survived by her loving husband Jay Porter, her sons Edward-artist (Andrea), David- physician (Lisa), Aaron-physician (Jennifer) and Jason-physician (Iryna), 14 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren and her beloved sisters Erma Peters and Delite Fahl.
Visitation for Ilene will be Friday October 22nd from 4:00-7:00 p.m. at the Robinson-Walker Funeral Home & Crematory, 165 E. Water St., Oak Harbor, OH, where funeral services will be conducted by Rev. Lowell Peters at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, October 23, 2021. Burial will follow ceremony at Salem Township Union Cemetery, Oak Harbor, OH.
Memorial contributions may be given in Ilene’s memory to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, www.michaeljfox.org.
Online condolences may be shared with the family at www.walkerfuneralhomes.com.
