Grace W. Hastings, 98, C&P switchboard operator

Grace W. Hastings, a retired Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. operator, died of heart failure Thursday at Frederick Villa Nursing Center in Catonsville. She was 98.

She was born and raised Grace Lemmon on her family's Lisbon farm. She was a graduate of Howard County public schools and went to work for C&P in 1928 as a switchboard operator. She retired in 1963.

A longtime resident of Baker Avenue in Catonsville, she was married in 1932 to Clifton Hastings, a Baltimore Transit Co. streetcar motorman who died in 1975.

Mrs. Hastings was an active member of Hunting Ridge Presbyterian Church, and enjoyed reading and crossword puzzles.

Services were held Monday.

She is survived by a niece, Dorothy Benton of Fairplay in Washington County.