Lucy Linn Stewart
By Mary Katherine Stump
Delray Beach — Lucy Stewart, a 37-year resident of Delray Beach and an active member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and the community died peacefully at her home on Oct. 14. She was 96.
“Everyone knew Lucy,” said Patsy Westall, the daughter of Helen Toal, one of Ms. Stewart’s longtime friends. “If there was a need, there was Lucy. I believe that one of the hardest parts of her decline over the last few years, both emotionally and physically for her, was not being able to serve. It was how she defined herself. Even as I visited her in this last year, she would always say ‘I wish there was something I could do for you’.”
Originally from Salisbury, N.C., Ms. Stewart attended the Women’s College, now the University of North Carolina Greensboro, where she received her teaching degree. She taught elementary school in Salisbury and married Sam Stewart, her husband of 40 years, in 1944. The two moved to Delray Beach in 1972 and were members of the The Little Club in Gulf Stream, where Ms. Stewart continued to play golf until she was 90. Ms. Stewart was preceded in death by her husband in 1984.
Ms. Stewart was a member of St. Paul’s Episcopal for over 30 years. She was an avid member of the Episcopal Church Women, an advocacy group who sought to have the voices and concerns of women heard both in the community and within the Episcopal Church. When Patsy Westall moved to Delray six years ago to care for her mother, it was Ms. Stewart who recruited her to the ECW.
“When I moved here, Lucy became an active part of my life,” said Ms. Westall. “She told me that I needed to be a member of the ECW, and then told me what time she was going to pick me up.”
Said St. Paul’s Rev. Kathleen Gannon, “She preached with her actions and not her words. She had a servant’s heart and a demonstrative leadership quality.”
Mrs. Stewart is survived by her two sons, Samuel E. Stewart Jr. of Villanova, Penn., and his long time companion, Despina F. Page, and Richard L. Stewart of Penfield, N.Y., his wife, Lin, and their two daughters, Heather Stewart of Atlanta and Rebecca Stewart, a student at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
Friends were invited to attend a memorial service at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Delray Beach on Oct. 24.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in memory of Lucy Stewart to St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 188 S. Swinton Ave., Delray Beach, FL 33444 for their outreach programs.
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