Mary Townsend Bartholomew

Mary Townsend Bartholomew, 87, died Sunday, April 24, 2022.  Since 2018 Mary lived at Westminster Woods in St. Johns FL.  She previously resided in Orange Park FL, beginning in 1988. She and her husband Dr. John Bartholomew, had also lived in Princeton NJ, Tok AK, Sayre PA, St Charles MO, and Decatur, GA

Born to Dr. Dorothy Burnett Townsend and Francis James Townsend on September 23, 1934, at Cazenovia, New York, her early schooling was at the Cazenovia Central Schools.  A graduate of Cornell University, she later earned further degrees from Lindenwood University and the University of North Florida.

Married in 1955, she taught elementary school in New Jersey while John attended Princeton Theological Seminary, as well as in Tok, Alaska during his first pastorate.  Her later career focused on managing voluntary organizations related to hunger issues, and other social justice areas.

Mary was ordained as both Elder and Deacon in the Presbyterian Church, but in her Missouri years served in the Episcopal Church.  In retirement she taught at the Peki Seminary of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana.  For nearly 30 years she sang in the Chancel Choir of the Riverside Presbyterian Church of Jacksonville.

In her MA in History at UNF, she focused on the first freed slave family in Clay County, Florida who managed to own a farm, tracing that and Cyrus Forrester’s service on the local school board during reconstruction.

She will be remembered as a strong advocate for social justice, working for peaceful desegregation of the St. Louis area schools, then leading the Interfaith Volunteer Lawyers in Atlanta, and the hunger program of Atlanta Presbytery with its outreach to Ghana, West Africa.  She always was grateful for her extended family and proud of her two children.

Mary was preceded in death by both her parents and by her younger brother, Robert Burnett Townsend, who was lost at sea in 1961 while serving in the Coast Guard.  She is survived by her husband, the Rev. Dr. John Niles Bartholomew, their son David (Kirsten) and daughter Jean Parker (Jeff) and three granddaughters, Sarah and Annie Bartholomew, and Jessie Parker Svenson (Matt), her younger sister Ann Townsend, and five nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at the Riverside Presbyterian Church, 849 Park St. Jacksonville, FL on May 21 at 11:00 AM.    The Very Rev Dr. G Russell Barr, past moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, will be the principal officiant for the service.

In lieu of flowers, contributions to the Microfinance organization serving Haiti, <Foncoze.org> will appreciated.