Mrs. Jennings approached Ms Oakley about painting an Annunciation scene in what was
then used as the reception room for the church's Pastoral Aid Society (the women's organization of the church). Ms. Oakley, instead, suggested a series of murals, and Mrs. Jennings convinced church members to sponsor 10 murals as memorials. Ms Oakley's commission was undertaken in the summer of 1945
(she was then over 70 years old) and the murals were completed in the spring of 1949.