Rev. Elizabeth M. Scott

Julia Elizabeth Scott

Elizabeth Scott, the third of eleven children born to Horace and Julia Miller of Earlysville, Virginia, passed away quietly at Heritage Place Nursing facility, in Pittsburgh, PA on July 20th.

Elizabeth had come in her teen years from Virginia to Pittsburgh to attend secondary school to secure an education untainted by the folly of segregation. She met Edward Scott who wooed and married her because he

found her irresistible. They had seven children whom they raised with unbounded love: Edward, Horace, Pamela, Duane, Charles (Kafala), James and Julia.

Following the birth of her youngest child Julia, Elizabeth entered the work force as a salesperson for Sears and Roebuck. Her ambition and sense of civic service eventually led her to KDKA radio and television where she served as personnel and administrative coordinator and the University of Pittsburgh where she worked as an administrative assistant to the Chancellor’s Advisory Council on Women’s Opportunities. She had a brief stint as a radio host for a talk show highlighting concerns for women’s rights. Later, Governor Milton Shapp appointed her to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

In 1970 Elizabeth answered a call to the ministry through the auspices of the AME Church.

Following her ordination ,Rev. Scott served many churches throughout western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio: Titusville, Monongahela, New Kensington, Steubenville, Greensburg, Irwin, Monroeville, and even Wilkes-Barre. It was as pastor of the last of these that she conceived the unthinkable and pursued it with all her might in 1984: to run for the office of Bishop in the AME Church. In spite of the ridicule this aroused she ran again four years later and still again four years after that insisting that God had called her to blaze the trail for whomever might follow her example.

Following her retirement Elizabeth endured a number of challenges to her health, finally requiring that she live with her oldest daughter the final twelve years of her life.

Six of her children, a host of grandchildren and great grandchildren survive Rev Scott. We ache with the loss of our mother but rejoice in her gain of heaven after a life so voluminous, so rich and God loving.

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