The Rev. Martha J. Bradley, the first woman to be ordained a vocational deacon in the Diocese of Springfield, died September 26 at 93.
Bradley was born in Carbondale, Illinois. She was a graduate of Springfield High School, Northwestern University, and Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and did further studies at Nashotah House Seminary.
She taught for Springfield District 186 for 32 years and served as staff chaplain at St. John’s Hospital.
She was ordained to the diaconate in 1987 and was made an honorary canon of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in 2012. In May 2017, she received the Father Breck Distinguished Alumnus Award from Nashotah House Seminary. She was active in Cursillo and many civic organizations.
She liked to stay busy, invoking a maxim she heard from one of her grandfathers: “I might burn out, but I don’t want to rust out.”
The Rev. J. Michael Burton, who served 19 years as a Roman Catholic priest before becoming an Episcopal priest in 1995, died September 4 at 85.
He was born in Greenville, South Carolina, and was an alumnus of St. Mary’s College of Marion County, Kentucky, and the Theological College of the Catholic University of America. He was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1965.
Burton married his wife, Patricia, in 1984 and was received into the Episcopal Church in 1995. He served at numerous parishes in South Carolina: Holy Family, Moncks Corner; Calvary Church and Grace Episcopal Cathedral, Charleston; and Christ Church, Florence. He participated in the civil rights movement, and the ecumenical movement, and conducted a focus group on racial relations during his ministry at Calvary Church.
He is survived by his wife, Patricia Fosberry Burton; a brother; two sons; two daughters; and three grandchildren.
The Rev. Dr. Everett Cooper Lees died September 11 at 48, only 16 days after learning he had Stage IV pancreatic cancer. Bishop Poulson Reed of Oklahoma announced his death in a message to the diocese.
“Everett served faithfully at Christ Church, Tulsa, since 2011, and was the leader of their remarkable revitalization,” Bishop Reed wrote. “He is beloved there, at Holland Hall school, and across our whole diocese, and has earned the friendship and respect of many across the Episcopal Church through his leadership as a Deputy to General Convention.”
The bishop added: “In the brief time since his diagnosis, Everett has demonstrated an unwavering faith in Jesus Christ, reliance on prayer, and even his characteristic sense of humor.”
He was born in Oklahoma City and was a graduate of the University of Oklahoma and Seminary of the Southwest.
He began ordained ministry as curate at St. Patrick’s in Broken Arrow, and he became vicar of Christ Church in Tulsa in July 2011. During his 13 years at Christ Church, the church grew to an average Sunday attendance of 400 and became a parish.
Lees wrote an essay for TLC’s online journal, Covenant, as the church prepared for this year’s General Convention, and a profile of his leadership at Christ Church during the emergence from the pandemic was the first in TLC’s “In Search of Growth” articles about growing Episcopal congregations.
He met Kristin Steinbruck in August 2001, and they were engaged nine months later. Lees wanted three qualities in his wife: that she be a Christian, a fellow graduate of the University of Oklahoma, and an admirer of former President Gerald Ford. They were married in May 2003.
He is survived by his wife and their three children, Maggie, Cate, and Conrad; his parents, Ann and Don Lees of Edmond, Okla.; and his brother, Jason Lees, and his family.
Other Deaths
The Rev. David Wooster Brown, Sept. 1
Douglas LeBlanc is the Associate Editor for Book Reviews and writes about Christianity and culture. He and his wife, Monica, attend St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Henrico, Virginia.
