The Reverend Deacon Evelyn Payson has been a deacon since 1992. Born in Providence, Rhode Island, she has spent most of her life in southern Wisconsin. She graduated from Harvard, majoring in history, and earned a Master of Science in Library Science at Simmons University. Her library career spanned over 45 years, primarily at Nashotah House Seminary, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and University of Wisconsin-Rock County where she served as library director.
 
She is a cradle Episcopalian, married to the Rev. Charles Payson since 1964, and was ordained deacon in the Diocese of Milwaukee. She has served at St. Andrew’s Church, Madison, Wisconsin; St. Anskar’s Church, Rockford, Illinois; Trinity Church, Janesville, Wisconsin; and St. Luke’s Church, Whitewater, Wisconsin. She has taught church history in the deacon training programs of the dioceses of Milwaukee and Chicago and is historiographer of the Diocese of Milwaukee.

 

In recent years she has been involved in ministry with the elderly, hospice work, and the Haiti Project of the Diocese of Milwaukee. She and her husband Charles moved to Fernandina Beach in late 2016 and Bishop Howard has licensed her to serve at St. Peter’s.