The End of an Era: Marie Grace Lee, Deaconess Sister

In the late nineteenth century, St. Louis was the American center of the Deaconess Sisters, a movement that traced its spiritual roots back as far as Paul’s first letter to the Romans. This order of women, founded in Germany in the 1830s, dedicated their lives to caring for the sick and the poor. They were established in America in 1889 by a group of St. Louis Evangelical pastors who wanted to respond to the needs of the poor in their community.

The Deaconess Sisters of St. Louis, which included 200 women, launched Deaconess Hospital and a nursing school and worked with children, seniors, and the homebound ill. Their work continues today through the ministries of CHHSM members including the Deaconess Foundation, Deaconess Parish Nurse Ministries and the International Parish Nurse Resource Center in St. Louis.

Now the Deaconess movement in the United States has passed into history. On February 25, 2010, Sister Marie G. Lee, the last Evangelical Deaconess Sister in the United States, died in St. Louis.

Sister Marie G. Lee was born to August and Ocie Lee on January 6, 1910 in Indiana and moved with her parents and three sisters to Latham, Illinois in early childhood. A bright and capable child, she began school at age 4 and graduated from the Latham High School at 16. Like her mother, she studied nursing, attending St. Clara’s School of Nursing in Lincoln, Illinois and graduating with her RN in 1929. Shortly thereafter, she went to St. Louis to help with a project at Deaconess Hospital for a time. She stayed for 80 years—two-thirds of the hospital’s history.

Sister Marie became a Deaconess Sister in 1932 and helped to start the Deaconess Hospital pediatrics unit, serving as its head nurse for its entire existence. She then studied orthopedic nursing in New York and returned to Deaconess to complete her career. In retirement, she served the hospital as a volunteer and was a strong mentor to generations of nursing school students at Deaconess College of Nursing (now Chamberlain College of Nursing). Despite the fact that she was a life-long Baptist, she remained committed to her vocation as an Evangelical Deaconess Sister.

“Sister Marie was our present link back to the earliest days of Deaconess Hospital, for she worked with those who were there from nearly the beginning of its ministry,” said the Rev. Deborah Patterson, CHHSM board member and executive director of Deaconess Parish Nurse Ministries and the International Parish Nurse Resource Center. “She modeled healthy eating and exercise habits for us all,” recalled Patterson, “and was actively involved with her students, colleagues, and friends, and their children, grand-children, and great-grandchildren, until the day she died.”

Sister Marie’s funeral was held in Maplewood, Missouri, just a mile from where she had lived for the last 80 years, and she was buried at St. Peter’s Cemetery in Normandy, Missouri, near scores of other Deaconess Sisters who had gone before her.

Blanchard Receives Julius Varwig Award

The Rev. Dr. Judith Blanchard, Protestant chaplain at Maine Medical Center in Portland, received the Julius Varwig Award at CHHSM’s annual meeting in March.

The United Church of Christ Professional Chaplains and Counselors and CHHSM present the Julius Varwig Award annually to a United Church of Christ professional chaplain or counselor who has demonstrated dedication and commitment to serve persons in the name of Jesus Christ.

Blanchard was ordained in the UCC in 1979 and became a board-certified chaplain in 1986 while serving St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, a 1,600-bed psychiatric facility in Washington, D.C. She has been the Protestant chaplain at Maine Medical Center since 1997.

Blanchard’s colleagues regard her as a consummate professional who holds up for others examples of faith and deep spirituality as she functions on a health care team of a major medical center.

The wider Portland community sees Blanchard as the chaplaincy “face” of both the Protestant Hospital Ministry, an independent agency that has supported her ministry, and Maine Medical Center, where doctors and hospital personnel claim her as one of their own. A prominent voice for chaplaincy, Blanchard has published articles in the Journal of Pastoral Care and Chaplaincy Today, as well as columns for local newspapers.

Blanchard has served the Association of Mental Health Chaplains and the Association for Professional Chaplains. She has served on the APC Board and is currently on the Professional Ethics Committee as the Maine state advocacy chair. She is trained in disaster relief ministry through UCC Disaster Ministries.

She earned her doctor of ministry degree at Bangor Theological Seminary, where her project focused on the spiritual life of cardiac patients. She was later honored with the school’s “Distinguished Alumni/ae Award for Service in a Specialized Ministry.” She received a sabbatical grant from Louisville Institute, breaking new ground for chaplains who seldom receive this grant of renewal that is enjoyed by academics and parish clergy.

In her proposal requesting support for her sabbatical pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in northwestern Spain, she wrote: “Much as the experience of those I serve (critically ill patients), this will be a journey in a new language, carrying all of my belongings and sustenance on my back, and dependent on God and the hospitality of strangers who care for pilgrims. The journey will be both inner and outer, exploring how I might live more prayerfully, intentionally in the present moment, and filled with gratitude for my calling.”

GuestLINK Keeps Patients Connected at Norton Healthcare

Being sick, or caring for someone who is, is difficult enough without the added inconvenience of being away from email and web access. That’s why CHHSM member Norton Healthcare in Louisville, Kentucky, has gone wireless at most of its hospital and health care facilities.
“Whether someone is hospitalized for several days, coming in for diagnostic testing or waiting for a family member who is in surgery, being out of touch is inconvenient,” said Joseph L. DeVenuto, vice president of information services and interim chief information officer for Norton Healthcare. “GuestLINK enables our adult patients and guests to access online health information and keep up with their business affairs while they’re here. Likewise, the patients at Kosair Children’s Hospital are especially happy to have access to their favorite Web sites, e-mail and instant messaging.”
The wireless signal is available in all patient rooms as well as waiting rooms, cafeterias and other public areas. Inappropriate websites, including those that involve gambling, pornography, weapons and hate are filtered. But online shopping sites are available and were a big hit with patients and family members in December!
Norton Healthcare has spent $1.2 million to provide wireless connectivity in its hospitals, including GuestLINK, which is part of a state-of-the-art integrated clinical information system being installed throughout Norton Healthcare’s facilities. When it is completed, it will link all of the system’s hospitals, physician offices and immediate care centers; standardize clinical, financial and operational functions; and provide real-time patient information to caregivers.
Norton Healthcare is the Louisville area’s leading hospital and health care system, and, with 9200 employees, the area’s third largest employer. Norton Healthcare includes five hospitals, seven immediate care centers and 185 employed physicians at more than 40 locations. To learn more about Norton Healthcare or GuestLINK, please visit www.nortonhealthcare.com