WORD has been received that Mrs
Louise McGraw, wife of the oldest surviving pre-war missionary
assigned to Malaya, the Rev Eugene McGraw, passed away on Nov
22, 2006 at the age of 91.
Born in 1915 in Holbrook, Massachusetts, her ancestry can be traced
back to the Pilgrims who landed in Plymouth in 1620.
Although Singapore Methodists may not be acquainted with the McGraws,
as their ministry was confined to Malaysian towns, it is worth
recalling that Mrs McGraw began her work in Taiping as a teacher
in 1939, a missionary of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society
in the (Methodist) Lady Treacher Girls' School in Taiping. In
1941, she married the Rev McGraw, who was Pastor of the Wesley
Church, Taiping.
The advent of World War II interrupted their ministry when they
were serving in Sitiawan, but they returned after the war to appointments
in Sibu (Sarawak), Malacca and Penang, as she ably assisted her
husband wherever he was appointed, and until they retired from
Mission work in 1971.