January 2, 1926 – January 27, 2017

by Rosalie Fonda, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Durham, NC, 2016

Elizabeth Wade Grant (Betty) was born in South Bend, Indiana, and soon after the family moved to Baltimore, Maryland. Her parents were Florence Peabody of Malden, Massachusetts, and Roderic Paul Wade of Howe, Indiana. She attended high school at Baltimore Friends, before going to Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. After graduation in 1947 she won a scholarship to study French in Paris, hosted by the French government. These fellowships were a way France could help repay the United States for its help in World War II.

Betty was one of the original members of St. Luke’s Church, Durham, in 1956. She helped start both Meals on Wheels and Habitat for Humanity in Durham. From 1983 to 1985 she was president of the League of Women Voters of North Carolina. She was also active in the early years of Durham Congregations in Action, which is an interfaith bi-racial group which met monthly to help Durham attend to some of the most pressing problems in that era. In April 2013 she received the Pass the Peace Award from the Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham, of which she was a founding member. This award was given in recognition of “prophetic leadership; and steadfast service to justice for all Durham citizens.”

On January 10, 1970, Betty was chosen by the Rev. J. E. C. Harris (Ted) to be Senior Warden at St. Luke’s. Thus she was the first woman in the diocese to be a senior warden. She served for two years.

After an internship at St. Stephen’s Church, she was ordained to the vocational diaconate at St. Luke’s on June 17, 1989. She served briefly at St. Luke’s before spending nine years as a deacon at St. Joseph’s in West Durham. Then she served almost fifteen years as a part-time chaplain at Duke University Hospital until she retired in 2003.