Subversive To The End

I’ve written before about some of the more colorful branches on my family tree. Probably my most famous relative is Jeanne Audrey Powers, the first woman ordained an elder in the United Methodist church. 

Unlike my wild Irish uncles, Jeanne Audrey will be remembered for her many good deeds. Unlike my Irish uncles, she never went to jail, was never chased by the FBI, and was, frankly, not nearly as interesting.

Born in 1932 in Mankato, Minnesota, Jeanne Audrey was eleven years older than I was. We have the same great-grandfather, Evan David Jones, who immigrated from Wales. Our grandfathers were brothers. Her mother and my father were first cousins, but they didn’t see each other very often.

Jeanne Audrey lived with her mother, Florence Powers, her two unmarried aunts, Edna and Grace Jones, and her grandmother, Lizzie Jones, in a big house in Mankato, MN. I don’t know what happened to her father. Now, with a renewed interest in genealogy, I might try to find out.

One of my only memories of Jeanne Audrey was at the wedding of my Aunt Shirley. My brother, Bob, and I were part of the wedding. I was six years old and Bob was almost five. It was a large, beautiful wedding. Shirley carried  a huge bouquet of peonies as she walked down the aisle ~ flowers picked from my grandfather’s huge peony garden. Bob and I were both dressed in white and looked cute, except for the black eye on my brother’s face, the result of me slamming the front door on him the day before the wedding. 

The wedding reception was at my grandparent’s home. Bob and I were playing in the back yard, swinging on a big four-person swing that went back and forth, faster and faster, higher and higher, until Jeanne Audrey came to tell us that we needed to stop. She reprimanded us for misbehaving at a wedding. And, to make matters worse, we were having fun all dressed up in wedding clothes. 

Jeanne Audrey must have been wicked smart. After getting her bachelor of science degree at Mankato State University in 1954, she studied theology at Princeton and the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. She also took graduate courses in England, Switzerland and Boston University School of Theology.

I didn’t follow Jeanne Audrey’s career. My family didn’t talk about her very much, although she lived nearby in Minneapolis. I recently read that she was nominated to be a bishop in the Methodist church in 1972 and 1976. Although it was considered an extremely rare honor for a woman to be ordained a bishop, Jeanne Audrey declined both times. She didn’t want people to scrutinize her private life.  

Rev. Jeanne Audrey was a volunteer with The United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women. Throughout her life, she was committed to feminist issues and was a champion for LGBTQ rights. She was well-known for insisting that all language be gender-neutral. She relished the idea of being a “she-ro.”

Jeanne Audrey was a driving force in the Reconciling Ministries Movement. In her final sermon at its national gathering in New York City in 1995, she declared that she was lesbian. The church elders were horrified and Jeanne Audrey was immediately ex-communicated. 

According to a 2018 article, “Wrestling With The Angel of Death” in Sojourners magazine, Cathy Lynn Grosssman wrote, “Jeanne Audrey Powers, 85 years and counting, wanted to stop counting. She felt herself growing more frail, less clear-header. She was losing her sight. Worst of all, the woman who once spoke on international podiums was losing her words.”  

Jeanne Audrey was technically not terminally ill, in spite of a series of mini-strokes. She was not a candidate for hospice but “she was dying to herself, as she knew herself to be.” 

Jeanne Audrey knew that the doctrines of the United Methodist Church included one against suicide, just as it included a doctrine against homosexuality in 1995.  And yet, she bought herself a one-way ticket to Switzerland and died, according to her friends, “at peace with her decision.” in a euthanasia facility. Her final wish was that these words would be etched on her tombstone: Subversive to the End.

Jeanne Audrey declared in her obituary, that her death ended the lineage of the Jones and Powers families. I beg to differ. My grandparents had nineteen grandchildren. We are all still here. 

Rest in Peace, Jeanne Audrey. I’m sorry I never knew you.