Grace Rorimpandey was born in June 1942 in the Minahasa region of North Sulawesi, part of the former Dutch East Indies, which became Indonesia after World War II. Growing up as a Manadonese of Indo (Eurasian) descent, she inherited a culture that mixed east and west.
At 18 years old, she was offered a job as a DJ at Radio Rebublic Indonesia (RRI), the local branch of the national radio station in Manado.
A few years later, in March 1963, she moved to Jakarta to work as a TV announcer at TVRI, the new national television station. After getting married, Grace quit her TV career to become a full-time mother, living in Manila and Singapore.
In 1990, she divorced, emigrated to Amsterdam along with two of her five children, and is now retired after years of work in flower and contact lens factories.
