Grace Carr, a longtime employee and volunteer at St. Luke’s Hospital-Sacred Heart who was affectionately known as “Amazing Grace,” has died.
Carr of Allentown, who turned 99 in July, died Oct. 27.
“We are saddened by the passing of St. Luke’s Hospital–Sacred Heart volunteer, Grace Carr, 99, a beloved member of the St. Luke’s Sacred Heart family whose extraordinary legacy of service spanned eight decades,” St. Luke’s said in a Facebook post. “Grace was part of Sacred Heart’s history, but more importantly, she was part of its heart. We extend our deepest sympathies to her family, friends and all who had the privilege of knowing her.”
Responders to that post recalled Carr’s self-sacrifice, helpfulness and as a “shining example of extraordinary nursing care and a patient, supportive teacher.”
A native of Freeland in Luzerne County, Carr was just 17 years old when, in 1944, she signed up as a nurse cadet trainee with the Army. The government paid her tuition on the condition that, when she graduated, she would work for a public institution. This brought her to the then-independent Sacred Heart Hospital in Allentown, where she graduated from the Sacred Heart School of Nursing in 1947.
During a 2024 interview with The Morning Call, Carr said even as a child she would always play hospital and never imagined herself doing anything else. She spent more than four decades as a nurse at Sacred Heart, before retiring to take care of her ailing husband. She began volunteering in 1993 after his death, contributing more than 6,000 hours in service to the hospital.
“From the time I was a child, I was always playing hospital,” she said. “My kid brother got to be the patient, which he wasn’t too happy about.”
Carr also could add film credits to her list of accomplishments; in June, actor/director Daniel Roebuck asked her to have a small part in his film, “Men of Granite,” set to be released next year, according to her obituary.
Carr is survived by her daughters, Janet, Eileen and Grace and son Richard, along with their families; a sister; 12 grandchildren; and 17 great-grandchildren.