The Rev Jean Murrie, minister at the Riverside Methodist Church, Blairgowrie, for 10 years until 2004, died recently at Perth Royal Infirmary.
She was in pastoral charge of the Methodist churches in Blairgowrie and Perth and her ministry extended for more than 20 years 10 as a circuit minister, and almost 11 as a supernumerary minister.
She was also well known to Methodists in Dundee, Montrose, and Arbroath, where she was a regular visiting preacher.
Mrs Murrie was recognised in the ministry of a local preacher in December 1958, and her life-long Christian ministry was entwined with her family, her calling, her friends, and her love of life.
The Methodist Conference stationed Mrs Murrie as a probationer minister to Perth in 1994 having completed her training after taking early retirement from teaching. Before being ordained she had been a local preacher in the Methodist Church for more than 30 years.
She was born in Liverpool and brought up in the Wirral. Before moving to Scotland she was a writer for the People’s Friend.
She became a preacher and trained as a secondary teacher, then marrying fellow teacher Peter Aston. They taught for three years in the Bahamas, where their daughter Christine was born. Peter entered the Methodist ministry and was stationed in Glasgow where their second daughter, Kathryn, was born.
After Peter’s death, Jean became a primary school teacher. She married Alistair Murrie and they had a son, Stewart.
In June 1996, Jean was ordained at Lytham St Anne’s.