Gladys Norma Grace McCoy Burchfield

Grace passed on to her heavenly home at the age of 95 on December 18, 2025. She entered this life near Elbridge, Tennessee on April 16, 1930, the ninth of twelve children born to Willie West (“WW”) McCoy and Mary Storey McCoy. Theirs was a farming family and Grace grew up in the cotton fields of western Tennessee, northeast Arkansas and southeast Missouri. She was salutatorian of her high school class at Matthews (Missouri) High School in 1948 and worked in the school office after graduation. Grace was working as a bookkeeper in St. Louis a few years later when she reconnected with a classmate, Hartsill R. Burchfield, who was serving in the Air Force there as a recruiter. Grace and Hart married in 1955 and Grace began her life as a military wife as Hart’s Air Force career grew in the areas of electronics and communication. Over the next 24 years they raised two children and lived in ten different states, plus Germany and Guam. After Air Force retirement, Grace and Hart moved back to Sikeston, Missouri and stayed for 18 years. They moved to Lenexa, Kansas in 1998 to be nearer to their grandchildren. Despite all the moves, Grace always considered Matthews and Sikeston as “home.”

Grace was a woman of many talents. Besides being a meticulous homemaker and great cook, and while living up to all the expectations of being an officer’s wife and sometimes raising her children alone for months at a time while Hart was on temporary assignments, she was an expert seamstress and made all her own clothes, as well as those of her daughter. She also made clothes for her daughter-in-law and other family members, and new curtains for every new house along the way. She wrote essays and poetry, drew and painted pictures, and taught Sunday School at many different churches through the years. Most of all, Grace loved to have fun with her sisters and nieces on trips home to southeast Missouri, at annual family reunions at Reelfoot Lake, and on trips to Nashville to see her favorite singers, Randy Travis and Willie Nelson. Once grandchildren came along, Grace reveled in spoiling and loving her grandkids at every opportunity. Grace often told a story to her grandchildren about how Wheaties were made, including sound effects. They would giggle about this for hours and beg her to retell the story.

Grace is survived by one sister, Betty Thomas of Conway, Arkansas. She is also survived by her children, Raymond Burchfield (Donna) of Shawnee, Kansas and Margaret Wessel (Greg) of Vashon Island, Washington, five grandchildren: Brian Burchfield, David Burchfield, Eric Olson, Stephen Trudel, and Marie Trudel, and two great-granddaughters, Matilda (“Tillie”) and Beatrice (“Bea”) Burchfield, and many nieces and nephews.

Grace is predeceased by her husband Hart in 2009, her parents, her brothers Jim, Horace, RD, Ray and Glen McCoy, and her sisters Winnie Greer, Thelma Ingram, Rean Winters, Rachel Clark, and Bobbie Partney.

Funeral service will be Friday, January 23, 2026 at Lenexa Baptist Church, 15320 W. 87th St. Pkwy, Lenexa, KS 66219, with burial to follow in Leavenworth National Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, Harvester’s Community Food Network or Lenexa Baptist Church.