wfn.org | ABCUSA: Irene Lovett, Pioneering Woman in Ministry, Dies

["SCHRAMM, Richard" <Richard.Schramm@abc-usa.org>]

American Baptist News Service (Valley Forge, Pa. 11/3/03)--Word has been
received of the death of the Rev. Dr. Irene E. Lovett, a pioneering woman in
ministry in West Virginia and former director of the Center for the
Ministry.  She died Oct. 10, 2003 at age 92.

In the 1940s, while her late husband, Frank, was pastor of Broadway Baptist
Church in Parkersburg, she became the second woman ordained in the West
Virginia Baptist Convention.  She initially pastored Mt. Zion Baptist
Church, and upon her husband's death became pastor of Broadway Baptist. 

She later became professor of psychology and dean at the Baptist Institute
and Ellen Cushing Junior College, in Bryn Mawr, Pa.  She also served part
time as a clinical psychologist in the pediatrics department of Woman's
Medical College Hospital in Philadelphia and at the Sleighton Farm School in
Darling, Pa. 

Following that she became the first director of and a career counselor at
the Center for the Ministry in Wellesley Hills, Mass.  

She retired in the 1980s and returned to Broadway Baptist Church in
Parkersburg as associate pastor. 

A memorial service was held Nov. 2 at Broadway Baptist Church in
Parkersburg.

K/2003ABNS/03ABN131

American Baptist News Service: Office of Communication, American Baptist
Churches USA, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851; (800)ABC-3USA x2077
/ (610)768-2077; fax: (610)768-2320; www.abc-usa.org;
richard.schramm@abc-usa.org