In Memory - 2004

In Memory......2004

Evelyn Virginia Murphree

February 16, 1922..........................January 27, 2004

Evelyn Murphree was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, on February 16, 1922 to C.M. and Ada Thompson Murphree. When she was approximately three years old, the family returned to Alabama. A brother Gene joined the family before Evelyn’s sixth birthday. Evelyn graduated from Tuscaloosa High School and received an A.B. degree from the University of Alabama. During that time she was exposed to the fact that there were full-time positions for women in the Methodist Church. She took graduate courses in social work and entered the state Department of Public Welfare.

She loved the work and began to feel called to full-time Christian service. Her pastor put her in touch with the personnel office of the Women’s Division. Alice Murdock was instrumental in guiding her through the appropriate steps. After two years at Scarritt College and a M.A. degree, Evelyn was commissioned a Deaconess on June 19, 1946. She later received a M.S.W. degree from Tulane University and became a certified social worker. Her years of service included seven years at Peek home for children, Polo, Illinois; twenty years at Methodist Home Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana; and Belle Chasse State School for the Developmentally Disabled.

Because of medical problems, Evelyn retired in 1986. She moved to Millington, Tennessee to be near her brother and his family. She joined the Brooks-Howell community on January 26, 1998. She was a member of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Asheville. Surviving are her brother Gene and a niece and nephew. Memorial gifts may be made to Brooks-Howell Home.

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Edna M. Sexton

January 29, 1914..................................January 30, 2004

Edna Sexton was born January 29, 1914, on a farm in Bloomfield Township, Crawford County, Pennsylvania, to Harvey Horton Sexton and Emma Martin Sexton (later, Mrs. J. Wesley Ward). She grew up in Union City, where the family had moved when her mother was left with five children to raise. Brothers and sisters included Oliver, Merle, Virgil and Dorothy. After graduating from Union City High School in 1931 and working two years, Edna studied for two years at Edinboro State Teachers College and started teaching school while continuing her schooling during evenings, Saturdays, and summers.

At an Epworth League Institute at Allegheny College she heard the call to full time Christian service. After five years of teaching, she resigned and enrolled at National College for Christian Workers. This led to a year at Northwestern University for her B.S. in Education. She was commissioned a deaconess by Bishop Arthur Moore in June 1943. She enjoyed working with children and young people throughout her thirty-three years of service. She did various tasks, including teaching kindergarten and nursery school, serving as a housemother for little boys, working with other housemothers, or helping to make an interim home for college-age girls. Her appointments included Nashville, Tennessee; Danville, Virginia; Tacoma, Washington; Seward, Alaska; Cedartown, Georgia; Binghamton, New York; Oakmont, Pennsylvania; and Indianapolis, Indiana.

She joined the Brooks-Howell family in January 1983. She was a member of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church. Survivors include a brother, Virgil, of Austell, Georgia and a sister, Dorothy Howe, of Rockville, Maryland.

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