Margaret Bird Caldwell

     Margaret Bird Caldwell was born on 21 December 1915 at Wheeling, Ohio County, West Virginia.¹ She was the daughter of Gibson Lamb Caldwell and Eleanor Davenport Glass.¹ Margaret Bird Caldwell married, at age 30, Miles Godfrey Alter Phillimore, age 31, son of Lord (?) Philmore Henley-on-thames, England and Dorothy Eleanor Haig, on Monday, 23 September 1946 at Mackinac Island, Mackinac County, Michigan.¹ Margaret Bird Caldwell died on 15 March 2004 at age 88 years, 2 months and 23 days.
     She appeared on the census of 6 January 1920 in the household of Gibson Lamb Caldwell and Eleanor Davenport Glass at Ohio County, West Virginia. She was widowed at age 56 by the death of Miles on 17 September 1972.¹ Margaret was one of the early Episcopal Priests, ordained on 5 January 1977 at St. Luke's On The Island, Wheeling, WV. Later on a visit to England, she became the first woman priest to preach at Canterbury Cathedral.¹ Margaret Bird Caldwell was an Episcopal Priest in 1980.¹ Her obituary was published on 18 March 2004 in the The Seattle Times, printed in Seattle, King County, Washington. Her obituary stated:

     Margaret Bird Caldwell PHILLIMORE ~ The Reverend Margaret Bird Caldwell Phillimore died Monday evening, March 15. She was born in Wheeling, West Virginia December 21, 1915, daughter of Gibson Lamb Caldwell and Eleanor Glass Caldwell. She attended Miss Bertha's School, Triadelphia High School, Pine Manor, and Dana Hall. She received Bachelor's degrees from Smith College in 1937. She attended Katherine Gibbs School in New York and worked as a secretary until becoming a full-time volunteer for Moral Re-Armament from 1939 until 1961. Widowed in 1972, she earned a second Bachelor's degree from Wheeling Jesuit University in 1974. She attended seminary in Queen's Theological College in Birmingham, England, in 1975. She was ordained Priest in Episcopal Diocese of West Virginia in January of 1977, five days after the Canons of the Episcopal Church Legalized the Ordination of women. She worked in several churches, in six of the eight deaneries of the Diocese of West Virginia as an interim vicar or rector, usually where there was some longstanding area of difficulty that needed to be resolved prior to the new incumbency of a permanent rector. For several years she worked with the Movement for the Ordination of Women in England. She preached in 17 English churches and eight English Cathedrals. At the cathedrals of Canterbury, Rochester, and Carlisle, she was the first woman ever to preach. Among the eight boards and commissions on which she served in the Diocese, she chaired the Diocesan Division of Christian Education and served on the Hunger Task Force, the Appalachian People's Organization, and was a visiting minister for the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville, West Virginia. Prior to her ministry and with her husband, the Hon. Miles G.W. Phillimore, she served in social work on every continent. She served the YWCA, Hospice, and the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra in Wheeling, West Virginia. After retirement, she moved to Seattle, Washington. She was preceded in death by her husband, the Hon. Miles G.W. Phillimore. Her daughter and son-in-law, Debbie and Gib Dammann, and three grandchildren granddaughters, Margaret Rayfield, Elizabeth Rayfield, and Alison Dammann, all of Seattle, Washington, survive her. Funeral Services will be conducted Saturday, March 20, at Trinity Episcopal Church, 609 Eight Street, Seattle.