Grace Alice Vanalstine (or Van Alstine), daughter of William Erbin (1884-1944) and Florence Adella (Bush) (1888-1940) was born 19 May 1922 Lansing, Ingham County, Michigan.  Grace's father owned and operated VanAlstine's Meat Packing Company.  Grace graduated from Okemos High School in 1941.

Grace was married 4 known times;  1941 Edgar Angell (1920-1973), 1948 Leslie Keith Harper (1919-1995), 1964 Charles K. Smith (1922-1981), and Harold Henry Hoffman .  Harold, born 17 April 1913 North Dakota, preceded Grace in death 23 July 1996.  Grace died 13 October 1998 Ingham County.

Lansing State Journal (Lansing, Michigan) 15 October 1998

HOFFMAN, GRACE ALICE (VAN ALSTINE)

OKEMOS

Grace traveled her last journey in the early morning Tuesday, October 13, 1998, leaving behind a legacy for all to admire.  Born May 19, 1922, Grace was a pioneer in the cattle buying industry where very few women have ever entered.  Grave was a unique individual with a lot of moxy and carried on the traditions of the meat packing business that her father began in the 1930's. She began buying cattle at auctions in her early twenties for the family business Van Alstine's Meat Packing Co., a custom butchering house that supplied meat to many Michigan restaurants and businesses for over seven decades.  During the years of World War II, when labor was hard to find, Grace stepped in to do the work of butchering trucking and hauling meat for her father.  Over the years she bought tens of thousands of cattle, put ter her "brand" on more steer than any other woman north of the Texas Panhandle.  Grace was also the first woman to enter the Toronto cattle auctions, which received Canadian national attention.  Buying cattle took Grace to many corners of the country and with that came a love of travel where she stepped in every corner of the World.  Besides being dedicated to the family business, she was a lover of horses and dogs.  During the early seventies she began raising and racing Harness horses and belonged to the Michigan Harness Assoc. and United States Trotting Assoc.  Grace also had a love for her family and friends.  She had a loyalty that always put people first.  Her warmth, generosity and mostly her humor will be greatly missed.  Grace is predeceased by her parents, William and Florence Van Alstine; sister, Margaret; and husband, Harold H. Hoffman.  Surviving are her nephews, Allen (Ann) Tomlinson and William Tomlinson; great nephews, Brian, Sean and Thad, great nieces, Sally and Jody; and many close friends.  A memorial will be held at the Gorsline-Runciman Co. East Chapel in East Lansing.

Comment from Sherrie Paty Barber:

My father's business, Paty's Auto Parts, worked on and repaired equipment for the VanAlstines for many years.  My Mom also occasionally purchased 1/2 a packaged steer for the freezer from their meat packing company

While in college I worked at the First National Bank of East Lansing (no longer in existence).  The bank owner, Mr. Hill, was a friend of my family.  Vanalstines did much of their banking at First National and I remember Margaret, Grace's sister, hauling in huge bags of cash for deposit.  The money had already been counted at the meat packing business but, as a teller depositing the cash, it had to be recounted and the amount was to coincide with the deposit slip.  I got along well with Margaret VanAlstine.  She was quiet, polite, business like but firm.  For some reason she had a reputation among the tellers as hard to deal with.  I never had such a problem BUT she did get one of the other young women fired from the bank.  I have no idea what the problem was but Mr. Hill called the female teller into his office and dealt with her.  The bank's head teller, Juanita, told the rest of us that there had been an altercation with Margaret and the young woman was fired on the spot.