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player ready...With her deep faith and love for the Episcopal Church, Patricia Sutton always longed to be a priest.
At first, her dream seemed impossible because of the church’s ban on female clergy. The Rev. Sutton was also legally blind and, in 1983, was diagnosed with a neuromuscular disease, making it painful to write or walk.
But when the church approved ordination of women in 1976, she told her husband and four children that she would enter seminary.
Overcoming her physical limitations with spiritual strength, she was ordained in 1987 by former Chicago Bishop Frank Griswold and became a priest at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston.
In the 1990s, when the Rev. Sutton could no longer walk, she continued to minister as a chaplain at Evanston Hospital in the spinal and paralysis unit, comforting patients who shared similar disabilities.
“She was the spiritual driver of our family,” said her daughter Mary Korkor. “Even in the end, her faith was so strong, I think she was the one ministering to us.”
The Rev. Sutton, 76, part of the early generation of female priests in Chicago’s Episcopal diocese, died Monday, Jan. 3, at Angel’s Grace Hospice in Oconomowoc, Wis., of complications due to neuromuscular illness and Parkinson’s disease, her family said.
She was born in Indianapolis to Mary and Robert Gould. Due to a rare recessive gene, she was diagnosed with retinal albinism, which caused her to be legally blind and very fair-skinned.
Though her vision was limited, she was blessed with a glorious singing voice that led her to Indiana University to study voice performance. To read music, she used extra-large type or held the compositions close to her eyes.
After college, she moved to Hobart, Ind., and found a job as a church organist. She became friends with the parish rector, the Rev. Charles H. Sutton. They married in 1959 and moved briefly to Chicago, then settled in Evanston, where they raised four children.
In a 1987 interview with the Tribune, the Rev. Sutton spoke about how her desire to be a priest began in childhood and continued after she married.
“Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to be a priest,” the Rev. Sutton said. “But what little girls did was dream about it or marry a minister, both of which I did.”
While raising her family, the Rev. Sutton also pursued her music, teaching piano lessons in her home and singing with the William Ferris Chorale.
In the 1960s, her husband experienced a crisis of faith and decided to leave the Episcopal Church for the Roman Catholic Church.
Although she initially supported his decision, the Rev. Sutton eventually led her husband back to the Episcopal Church. He was reinstated as an Episcopal priest in 1978.
“She never wavered in her faith,” said her daughter. “Even though she attended Catholic services for a while, she felt deep down that she was called to the Episcopal Church.”
In 1982, the Rev. Sutton enrolled at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary to prepare for the priesthood. A year later, she was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease and told she would live only two to five years and be severely handicapped.
In later years, doctors concluded that the Rev. Sutton did not have Lou Gehrig’s disease but was suffering from a similar neuromuscular degenerative disease.
When her husband died in 1984, she struggled to complete seminary, fighting feelings of grief and anxiety over her own debilitating illness.
“There was this terrible tension of trying to get through school quickly before the disease progressed,” she told the Tribune in 1987. “It took me almost five years, and it is usually a three-year program.”
She found much support from family, friends and seminary classmates.
“People read my books to me. Others helped me carry things or get up and down the stairs,” she told the Tribune.
After her ordination, the Rev. Sutton served at St. Luke’s Church and as a chaplain at Evanston Hospital. As her health worsened, she struggled to walk, using a cane, then a walker, then a wheelchair. Through her own battle with disease, she was able to empathize with patients’ struggles.
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Sandy Hubbard, who worked in pastoral care at Evanston Hospital, said the Rev. Sutton often used music in her hospital ministry, singing hymns to comfort patients.
“Even though it was hard for her to get around, she would sing to them and bring them some peace,” said Hubbard. “She was determined not to let her disabilities stop her pastoral care at the hospital or her ministry as a priest.”
In addition to her daughter, the Rev. Sutton is survived by another daughter, Martha; two sons, Robert and Christopher; and nine grandchildren.
A celebration of the Rev. Sutton’s life is set for 2 p.m. Jan. 15 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 939 Hinman Ave., Evanston.