The Rev. Dr. Marjorie Newlin Leaming

The Rev. Dr. Marjorie Newlin Leaming, 95, died March 19, 2010. A graduate of Meadville Lombard, she was ordained in 1967. A UUWF survey on the status of women in our ministry in 1974 found that of the 750 ministers in fellowship, just 40 were women and of these, and only five had pulpits of their own. Marjorie was one of these, and she was one of a kind. Her fierce commitment to the UU ministry and to seeing that the worth of women clergy was recognized and granted the same status as men, in those early and challenging years of women entering the ministry, demanded every bit of Marjorie’s brilliant mind and fiery spirit. She served congregations in Santa Monica, CA and then Santa Paula, CA, where she was named minister emerita upon her retirement.