The Reverend Kay Greenleaf—a late-career parish minister who became a fierce and widely celebrated advocate for marriage equality—died on 19 January 2018, aged 78, after a long illness.

Social justice was one of Kay’s lifelong passions. In 2004 Kay enlisted local clergy to help marry many same-sex couples, drawing widespread public attention. She and the Rev’d Dawn Sangrey were arrested for this work but the charges were later dismissed.

Katherine Anne Greenleaf was born on 23 December 1939 in Orlando, Florida, to Helen and Richard Greenleaf. At Ball State Teachers College (Muncie, IN) Kay earned a B.S. in education in 1962. Initially she taught high school drama and worked in criminology and social service but then moved to a small farm in Wooster, OH, where she renovated and lived in an 1820s log house and raised geese, chickens, and goats. During this time she began attending the UU Fellowship of Wayne County.

Kay moved to Columbus, OH, in 1987 to join her newfound life partner, Pat Sullivan. The couple became actively involved in the city’s First UU Church. With an ever-stronger call to ministry, she enrolled at the nearby Methodist Theological School and completed work for her M.Div. in 1996, meanwhile supplying many local UU pulpits.

Ms. Greenleaf was ordained on 20 April 1997 by the First UU Church of Columbus. After brief contract ministries, she was called to the UU Fellowship of Poughkeepsie, NY, where she served from 1998 until her retirement in 2009 and was later elected Minister Emerita.

At her death, Kay Greenleaf was survived by her wife of 31 years, Pat Sullivan, three cousins, and a sister-in-law. Of her beloved spouse, Pat wrote, “Kay took people at face value and always saw the good in them.”