JANE FRANCES MERRITT

b. 1943

by the Rev. Paul Canady, Christ Episcopal Church, New Bern, NC, 2016

Jane Frances Merritt

“When I heard the rector quote Scripture, saying ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart,’ I was riveted by those words, and I knew that I had never put God first in my life,” says Jane Merritt. That was in 1999 at St. Andrew’s-by-the-Sea in Nags Head, NC. Jane was living in Columbus, OH, working as an adjunct instructor at Ohio State University. She thought at the time that she was just going to pop into the Bible study before the 11:00 a.m. service, but by the end of her visit to Nags Head, she was moving towards an understanding of her calling to prison ministry. She finished the semester at OSU and moved to Nags Head.

Even though Jane had grown up in Anglican boarding schools in England (Wicken Park and Westonbirt), her faith was not part of her everyday life. Following God’s call to Nags Head, she worked to up-end that pattern of life. She attended Cursillo and helped start the Alpha Course at St. Andrew’s with a very diverse and ecumenical following. She became involved in prison ministry in Dare County and met her husband Keith through Diocesan recovery efforts following Hurricane Floyd in late 1999. He was living in Fayetteville, NC, and deeply involved with the Episcopal Farm Worker Ministry in Newton Grove. They were both in New Bern in February 2001 for the Diocese of East Carolina’s Convention and felt that God was leading them here as a place where they could both do ministry.

Jane has ministered in five North Carolina prisons since 1998. In 2005, she was invited to attend a training session, sponsored by the Episcopal Church, on ministering to children with a parent in prison. From that experience, Camp Hope was born, despite Jane’s insistence that she was not the right person to lead it. Camp Hope, held annually at Camp Bob at Kanuga Conference Center in Hendersonville, hosts over 70 young people for a week each summer. She chaired the East Carolina’s Prison Ministry Commission and serves on the Board of Forgiven Ministry. Jane is also a member of the Ministry of Money’s Covenant for Transformation Group, Washington, DC. This commitment has taken her on reverse pilgrimages to Haiti and to India in 2007. Her passion is sharing with others what she has learned from some of the poorest of the poor about how to live the abundant life in community without material possessions.

In July 2003 Jane began hosting “Called to Serve,” a local television program featuring lay and ordained persons who are answering God’s call to serve others in this community and beyond. Former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey and Presiding Bishop Michael Curry are among the those she has interviewed. Past episodes of the program can be found at http://www.calledtoservenc.com/.

Jane was born in Toronto and moved to London in 1948. She has one son who lives with his wife and two children in Denmark.

REBECCA HILL (1840-1913) & THE LADIES OF HER FAMILY

by Ellen C. Weig, Saint Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Hillsborough, NC, 2012

1901 bill of sale to Rebecca Hill (and St. Matthew’s Ladies Sewing Society) for project supplies

Miss Rebecca Hill was the Treasurer of the Ladies Sewing Society (LSS) of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Hillsborough in 1866 and for many years. The daughter of Thomas Blount Hill and Maria T. Simpson she had been confirmed at St Mary’s School in Raleigh on November, 1855. Rebecca’s needlework talents for the Society included ornamental tatting which she added to the fine cravats she made and as complicated yokes for nightgowns. She also made dress bodies, beautiful embroidered sleeves, and handkerchiefs. Her contributions to the Society’s 1867 Christmas Tree sales were cravats of fine black silk and fashionable pincushions. The Society made investments and did their banking through Rebecca’s father, Thomas B. Hill, so it may well have been that Rebecca’s skills as Treasurer were influenced by her father’s professional endeavors. She never married and is buried at St. Matthew’s in the churchyard.

Rebecca’s younger sister, Alice (1853-1931), was also a member of the Ladies Sewing Society. She married Joseph Cheshire Webb, and lived at in the beautiful home, Bellevue, across from St. Matthew’s. For the Society she made stitched bands with tatted insertions but primarily made lace tatting. For the Christmas Tree Alice contributed a tobacco bag and penwipes.

The ladies of Rebecca’s family provided a model, inspiration, and companionship for her role in the Society. Miss Rebecca was named for her grandmother, Rebecca Norfleet (Mrs. Thomas Blount) Hill of the Hermitage in Scotland Neck, and the primary force behind the organization of the new parish of Trinity Church in 1831-32 (Smith and Smith, The History of Trinity Church, p. 35). Miss Rebecca’s aunt, Winifred Blount Hill married the Rev. William Norwood of Hillsborough, first rector of Calvary Church, Tarboro, which had an early Ladies’ Working Society in 1834-1840. Winifred’s daughters, Rebecca H Norwood, Helen Alves Norwood, and Mary L Norwood appear in the records of the St. Matthew’s LSS. Miss Rebecca’s cousin, Rebecca Norfleet Hill Smith, daughter of Whitmel John and Lavinia Hill, was the organist at Trinity Church, Scotland Neck, was the first president of the Ladies’ Sewing Circle in 1878, and was a primary force in building the Rectory at Trinity Church (Smith and Smith, p. 41-42). Miss Rebecca’s mother, Maria Simpson of New Bern, was the sister of Mrs. Elizabeth Adam Simpson Kirkland, and Mary Simpson (Mrs. Henry K) Nash, and had summered in Hillsborough with her family as a young woman. Miss Rebecca’s cousin, Annie Nash, was also a founding member of the St Matthew’s Ladies Sewing Society.

Sources:

St. Matthew’s Ladies Sewing Society Minute Books and Parish Records

Smith, Stuart Hall and Smith, Claiborne T., Jr., The History of Trinity Church, Scotland Neck, Edgecombe Parish, Halifax County , 1955. http://digital.lib.ecu.edu/16850 Accessed online February 21, 2012.

Censur, Jane Turner.  The Reconstruction of White Southern Womanhood, 1865-1895. http://books.google.com/books?id=-elYTzynX4gC&dq=censur,+southern+womanhood&source=gbs_navlinks_s Accessed on line February 20, 2012.

BARBARA ANN STEPHENS ODDERSTOL

b. February 25, 1929

by Ann Victoria Harris Bustard, Christ Episcopal Church, New Bern, NC, 2016

Barbara Ann Stephens Odderstol

Barbara was born in Los Angeles and grew up in Grand Canyon Village, Arizona. A cradle Episcopalian, Barbara was baptized at Grand Canyon Village by the Bishop of St. Louis, William Scarlett. At age thirteen, Barbara attended Wasatch Academy, a college preparatory boarding high school In Mt. Pleasant, Utah. She received a BA in education from the University of Arizona and a masters in administration and supervision in education from Rutgers University.

In 1951 Barbara married Thomas Christian Odderstol, VII, shortly after Tom graduated from West Point. He served in the United States Army during the Korean War and entered private business thereafter. Because Tom’s business career sent him many places, Barbara has been a member of at least ten churches.

In 1994 Barbara and Tom moved to New Bern to retire and she immediately became involved in many activities. She helped to start Stephen Ministry at Christ Church and to found Merci Clinic – a facility to supply medical care for indigents – and Matthew 25 – a tutoring program for struggling Middle School students. She has served as president of the Christ Church Episcopal Church Women.

Barbara served as a teacher and administrator in public schools for 26 years. She also taught on the adjunct faculty at Seton Hall University. In New Bern she began another educational endeavor teaching remedial education at Craven Community College for fifteen years, retiring for a second time at age 80. She felt called to work with remedial students. Her students will tell you she loved them and encouraged them in their endeavors. Her father taught her to respect structure and also the importance of integrity, ideals she inculcated throughout her educational career.

Barbara serves as member of the Altar Guild, is a charter member of the Daughters of the King, and volunteers at an after school tutoring program for elementary students. She sings in the Christ Church Choir and is a wonderful soloist. She says, “Music is the highlight of my life.”

She and Tom had four children; one daughter was lost to cancer. Today there are nine grandchildren, and three great grandchildren with a fourth on the way.

Barbara loves Christ Church, whose members are like her family. She is outgoing, friendly and vivacious. She has many friends of all ages. She feels that more attention must be focused on the older members in churches because of their many needs which, often, are not being addressed. Her faith is very strong, and she attends church regularly. The lesson she has learned in life is that “no person is an island.” Barbara feels that people must work together to arrive at solutions.

MARY BAYARD DEVEREUX CLARKE

May 13, 1827 – March 30, 1886

by Charles K. (Ken) McCotter, Jr., Christ Episcopal Church, New Bern, NC, 2016

Mary Bayard Devereux Clarke

Mary Bayard Devereux Clarke was born on May 13, 1827, in Raleigh, North Carolina, to Thomas Pollock Devereux and Catherine Anne Johnson Devereux. Her ancestors include revivalist preacher Jonathan Edwards, clergyman and educator Samuel Johnson, and wealthy landowner and colonial governor Thomas Pollock. Although born in to a wealthy North Carolina planter family, Mary Bayard frequently tested the roles of southern planter women. Because of the southern ideal of the lady and respect for her father, she published poetry and prose under a pseudonym rather than her own name.

Before the Civil War, Mary Bayard became a well-known poet and columnist using the pseudonym Tenella. In 1854 she published the first compilation of poems written by North Carolina poets, Wood-Notes; or, Carolina Carols: A Collection of North Carolina Poetry. She also wrote columns about a trip to Cuba in 1855 for the Southern Literary Messenger.

In 1848 Mary Bayard married Mexican War hero, William J. Clarke, a native of New Bern. They were married in Louisiana by Mary’s uncle, Bishop Leonidas Polk, an Episcopal bishop who later became a major general fighting for the Confederacy. After traveling to Cuba in 1855, the Clarkes moved to San Antonio, Texas, where they endured the rigors of frontier life through the excitement of living at an army post, outside adventure, and the relaxed style of western entertaining. Living in Texas during the seccession crisis, Mary Bayard covered the events for the New York Herald. She returned to North Carolina in 1861, at the beginning of the Civil War, and wrote to support the Southern cause while her husband fought for the Confederacy. Her patriotic verses for newspapers became household words.

Although writing articles critical of radical reconstruction, Mary Bayard continued her creative writing, and in 1866 published her book of poetry, Mosses from A Rolling Stone; or, Idle Moments of a Busy Woman. She was also publishing in southern and northern papers. She wrote book reviews for Harper, Appleton, and Scribner publications, and composed hymns and novelettes.

To the dismay of Mary Bayard and her family, her husband joined the Republican Party in 1868, creating the difficulties of living as the wife of a scalawag in the Reconstruction South. Despite this tension, Mary Bayard stood by her husband.

After the death of her father in 1869, Mary Bayard used her own name in her work.

Moving to New Bern in 1869, the Clarkes attended Christ Episcopal Church. They briefly taught at the New Bern Academy. Mary Bayard’s journalism turned to social commentary and she became an advocate for the working woman.

The Clarkes had four children. Their granddaughter, Mary Bayard Morgan Wootten, became a famous North Carolina photographer.

A biography of Mary Bayard Clarke can be found in Live Your Own Life: the Family Papers of Mary Bayard Clarke, 1854-1886, edited by Terrell Armistead Crow and Mary Moulton Barden, great granddaughter of Mary Bayard Clarke.

IRMA ELIZABETH GORDON WALKER CROWELL

October 25, 1920 – November 2, 2014

by the Episcopal Church Women, All Saints’ Episcopal Church, Hamlet, 2016

Irma Elizabeth Gordon Walker Crowell

Irma Crowell was born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1920, to Delores Felice Perl and William St. George Walker. In 1941 she married Julius Alexander Crowell, Sr. (1916-2005), and they had a son and a daughter: Dr. Julius Alexander Crowell Jr. of High Point, NC, and Dale Crowell Armstrong of Charleston, SC.

At All Saints’ Episcopal Church in Hamlet Irma served as Altar Guild Chairman for many years. When she was elected as Diocesan Altar Guild Chairman part of her responsibility was to travel around the Diocese and offer presentations for different parish Altar Guilds. She subscribed to the National Altar Guild newsletter and found a communion wafer recipe which she began using at All Saints, where it remains in use today. She also shared this recipe with Altar Guilds at other parishes. At one time, one of Irma’s friends, an Episcopalian living in another state, made the wine for All Saints’, but now it is purchased commercially.

Among her many church activities, Irma served as Junior Warden several times, and also as a voting member of the Vestry. She represented All Saints’ at many Diocesan Conventions. She served as Treasurer for the Moncure Fund from its beginning and continued in that position for twenty-five years. She taught Sunday School, sang in the choir, served as a Lay Reader, and was the long-time Treasurer of the Episcopal Church Women.

Irma also volunteered in the community, first for the Red Cross and later for the Sandhills Regional Auxiliary Guild.

Until her death in 2014, Irma Crowell was the oldest living member of All Saints’. On her first Sunday in Hamlet she attended All Saints’, where Bishop Penick was making one of his official visitations. Ironically, Irma moved to Southern Pines in 2012, and died there while residing at Penick Village, the senior living facility and namesake legacy of this bishop’s vision for the diocese. And, as she became a legacy in her own right, Irma was the go-to person for All Saints’ history. She is missed in this place.