Family, friends and colleagues gathered at the Forecourt of the State House in Accra on Saturday morning to say a final goodbye to veteran actress Grace Naa Kwarley Nortey, who died in August at the age of 89.
The state-assisted burial service began at 8am, with mourners asked to dress in all white, according to the family’s funeral invitation reported by Adomonline. Her body lay in state at the forecourt as family members, colleagues and admirers filed past to pay their last respects.
The1957News, which posted live updates from the ceremony, reported that veteran actress Grace Omaboe, popularly known as Maame Dokono, and actor and Ayawaso West Wuogon MP John Dumelo were among those who filed past the body. Media personality Berla Mundi and her husband, David Tabi, were also among the mourners.
Her daughter, Sheila Nortey, read a tribute on behalf of her siblings and spoke about the family’s loss.
“Now, even as grown women with families and children of our own, we have to learn to live in a world without our mother in it,” she said.
John Dumelo also paid tribute in a post on X ahead of the service, recalling how they worked together on the 1991 film Baby Thief.
“From the first day I set foot on the film set of ‘Baby Thief’, she’s always been an inspiration,” he wrote. “Rest in Peace Aunty Grace Nortey. Rest well Grandma. Love you.”
Grace Nortey died in the early hours of Wednesday, 26 August 2026, at the University of Ghana Medical Centre, Citi Newsroom reported at the time. Born on 1 February 1937, she had a career that spanned more than five decades across theatre, radio, television and film. In the 1970s she hosted Nyeawokoshie, a programme for Ga women on GBC’s Radio One, and her first major film role came in the 1986 production Juju.
She became one of the best-known faces of Ghanaian television through productions such as Obra and Osofo Dadzie, and later appeared in Nana Akoto, Escape to Love, Ties That Bind and Sinking Sands, in which she played Grandma. International audiences saw her as the Old Witch Woman in the 2015 film Beasts of No Nation, which starred Idris Elba and Abraham Attah, 3News reported. Among her honours was a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Black Star International Film Festival in 2018.
The funeral rites end on Sunday, 1 November, with a thanksgiving service at St Barnabas Anglican Church, Osu, at 8am. The family says the interment will be private, GhanaWeb reports.
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