wfn.org | Ethelou Talbert, wife of San Francisco bishop, dies Feb. 1

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Feb. 2, 1999 Contact: Thomas S. McAnally*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
10-21-31-71B{061}

By United Methodist News Service

Ethelou Douglas Talbert, 66, wife of United Methodist Bishop Melvin G.
Talbert, died in her sleep at their home in Elk Grove, Calif., Feb. 1.

She had suffered from a kidney ailment in recent years and during recent
months was on dialysis.

Mrs. Talbert was a musician, a student of the behavioral and social
sciences, and was active in ecumenical activities. 

Born in New Orleans, she majored in voice at Dillard University, New
Orleans, and later attended Scarritt College and Vanderbilt University in
Nashville where she majored in behavioral science.  She did further study at
the Graduate School of Social Work at Tennessee State University in
Nashville.

The Talberts were married June 3, 1961.  They have one daughter, Evangeline
(Vangie) Violet Sifford, an attorney in Atlanta; a granddaughter and
grandson.   

The Talberts served churches in Los Angeles before he was named  a staff
member and district superintendent in the former Southern California-Arizona
Annual Conference.  In 1973 they  moved to Nashville, Tenn., where he served
as the top staff executive for the churchwide Board of Discipleship.  From
that position, he was elected a bishop in 1980 and assigned to the Seattle
Area where he served until 1988.  Since 1988 he has served the church's San
Francisco Area.  

Mrs. Talbert taught music education and was Director of Admissions and
Recruitment at Claremont (Calif.) School of Theology and was administrative
assistant to the director of a home for the aging in New Orleans. 

She has been an officer of Church Women United,  a member of the Greater
Seattle Chapter of the United Nations Association, and a board member of the
Atlantic Street Center in Seattle.  She was a member of the YWCA Board of
Directors in Berkeley, and was employed part-time at the Learning Resource
Center at Merritt College in Oakland. 

A private funeral service and burial are planned.  A memorial service will
be held in the California-Nevada Annual Conference but time or place have
not been determined.

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