John Killens’ Widow Passes

From Brenda Greene, Medgar Evers College//Brooklyn:

To the College Community,

It is with great sorrow that I announce that Mrs. Grace Killens, the wife of the late John Oliver Killens, and the grandmother of Abiba Wynn-Deceus, made her transition on November 10, 2009. John Oliver Killens was an important figure in the Black Arts Movement, as well as writer-in-residence at Medgar Evers College until he made his transition. He was also the founder of the National Black Writers Conference at Medgar Evers College.

Mrs. Grace Killens

(June 25, 1919 – November 10, 2009)

(Brooklyn, NY) – At approximately 4 a.m. this past Tuesday, November 10, Mrs. Grace Jones Killens, the widow of novelist John Oliver Killens, passed away quietly in her home. She was 90 years old.

Born on June 25, 1919, Grace Ward Jones was the daughter of Barbadian immigrants, Thomas Sylvester Jones, among the first practicing podiatrists in New York, and Mabel Ward. The fourth of five children, among them Casper, Elinor, Gloria and former Justice Thomas Russell Jones, she was born and educated in Brooklyn, New York, attending Girls Commercial High School and Brooklyn College. A staunch community activist throughout her adult life, she met husband John, a native of Macon, Georgia, in Washington D.C., on a picket line. They were married in 1943, shortly after he had been inducted into the armed forces. During his tour of duty in the Pacific, John would include in his letters to Grace notes and excerpts of what would eventually be incorporated into his first three novels, Youngblood, And Then We Heard The Thunder, and ‘Sippi. These two hallmarks, social activism and working as a team, served as key features of their forty-four-year marriage. In addition, throughout the thirty years they lived in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, their home remained refuge and meeting ground for writers, artists and activists across the board.

[Funeral services and burial at Evergreen Cemetery were scheduled Nov. 15-16.]

She is immediately survived by son Jon Charles Killens, daughter Barbara Killens-Rivera, son-in-law Louis Reyes Rivera, brother-in-law Richard Killens, cousin Mrs. Virginia Ward, three grandchildren (Abiba Wynn and husband Ruddel Deceus, Barra Ankhra Wynn, Kutisa Rivera and husband Raj Sharpe), and four great-grandchildren (James, Akaila, Quamey, and Jean-Oliver), in addition to a host of nieces, nephews and close friends.