Rosemary Anne Kew

She is survived by her husband, Richard, her daughters Olivia Kew-Fickus and Rosalind Womack, her sister Margaret Gaunt, her grandchildren Hannah and Robin Fickus and Katherine and Abigail Womack, her nephews Nicholas and Patrick Barry, her sons-in-law Joseph Fickus and John Womack, and her brother-in-law John Gaunt. She was predeceased by her parents, Jack and Joyce Errington, and her brother-in-law Anthony Barry.

Gifts in lieu of flowers are requested to be given to the St. George’s Chapter of Order of Daughters of the King, the order of Christian women of which she was a member (go to www.stgeorgesnashville.org/give-online and note "Daughters of the King" in the memo line); or to the Nashville International Center for Empowerment (NICE), which supports refugee resettlement in the local area (empowernashville.org/donate). Friends from overseas are encouraged to give to a local refugee resettlement charity in her honor if they prefer.

Rosemary Anne Kew (neé Errington) was born on November 16, 1945, in Portsmouth, England, the elder child of Jack and Joyce Errington. Her sister Margaret was born six years later.

Portsmouth is the home of the Royal Navy, and her father worked for the Admiralty for all his career, although poor health due to a childhood bout of rheumatic fever precluded him being in the military during World War II. Her mother had been a nanny for the children of a naval officer before she married, and she ran a nursery school when Rosemary was a child and worked in childcare most of her life. They lived simply, in public housing, but the Erringtons were dedicated to education and they scrimped and saved to send their two daughters to private school and then on to university.

The family became involved in St. Jude’s Church in the Southsea district of Portsmouth where Rosemary grew up. She sang in the choir, and it was through the church’s youth ministry that she came to faith in Jesus Christ.

Rosemary was a skilled linguist and matriculated at the University of London (Westfield College) in 1965 to study French and German, the first in her family to receive higher education. In the autumn of her second year, she spoke to the vicar at the church she was attending to ask if she could help with the youth. The vicar, Alec Motyer, introduced her to a young seminarian, Richard Kew. They were 20 and 21.

Alec Motyer conducted their marriage on July 20, 1968, at St. Jude’s, where Rosemary had grown up. Richard was still in seminary, and Rosemary, a newly-minted BA, took a job teaching French at a secondary school in north London. But Rosemary believed that being a clergy spouse was an important role in its own right, and they always treated Richard’s clergy roles as shared endeavors. When Richard was ordained in the Church of England in 1969, they moved to the north London region of Finchley for his first curacy at St. Paul’s Finchley, and in 1972 they took a curacy at St. Mary Magdalene Stoke Bishop in Bristol.

They desperately wanted children and had already had two miscarriages, including one that almost took her life. So they were overjoyed when Olivia was born in 1973 and Rosalind in 1975. Rosemary gloried in being a mother all her life.

In 1976 they embarked on a new adventure, moving to Massachusetts, where Richard became the assistant rector at Christ Church in Hamilton, north of Boston. In 1979 he became rector of All Saints’ Church in Rochester, New York, and they moved to upstate New York. She threw herself into learning how to live as a Brit in America, ultimately spending almost fifty years in this learning process! She was finally preparing for her US citizenship interview when she died.

As the girls started full-time school, Rosemary renewed her academic career and received an MA in Comparative Literature from the University of Rochester. In 1985 Richard’s career pivoted and he became the first Executive Director of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in the USA (SPCK/USA), which was housed at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Rosemary did some substitute teaching and took on various roles, including as the Marketing Director for the Dubose Conference Center in Monteagle, before becoming an instructor of French, German, and Latin at Middle Tennessee State University starting in 1987.

She commuted to MTSU multiple days a week from Sewanee, until in 1995 when they moved to Murfreesboro, the girls having graduated from school and Richard’s role at SPCK/USA being completed. She was a dedicated faculty member at MTSU, sharing her love of foreign languages with her students while also caring for them as individuals. She won multiple teaching awards, managed study abroad links, and ultimately spent over 20 years at MTSU, retiring as a tenured Associate Professor. During that time she earned a research degree, an MPhil, from the University of London, in French Literature, working nights and weekends to complete her dissertation.

She and Richard built their eco-house south of Franklin in 2004. She loved tending the garden and making it a green haven. But she continued to miss the UK and found being far from her widowed mother and sister very hard. In 2007 they took the opportunity to move to Cambridge, England, where Richard became the Director of Development at the seminary Ridley Hall and they became deeply engaged at St. Andrew’s in Impington, a village just north of Cambridge. She became one of the Churchwardens at St. Andrew’s, playing an enormous role in building a thriving church community that grew significantly during her time there, including creating a children’s ministry more or less from scratch. She was also able to be with her sister Maggie during her first husband Anthony’s illness and death, and with her mother Joyce during her last days.

But she and Richard had not sold their house in Franklin and decided to move back to Tennessee in 2015. Richard joined the clergy staff at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Belle Meade and Rosemary ultimately found a role as president of the Daughters of the King chapter at St. George’s. She had always had a passion for supporting other immigrants, especially those who come as refugees, and she counts as friends local families from Sudan, Congo, and Afghanistan. She also enjoyed being part of the memoir writing club, and took huge care to write monthly missives that she could ultimately leave to her children and grandchildren. She loved being an engaged and present Grandma to her four grandchildren.

Her husband and daughters are grateful for her life, witness, and the opportunity to be with her in her final moments. She is beloved and will be greatly missed.

To watch the livestream of the funeral, please visit www.stgeorgesnashville.org/worship-online starting from just before 2pm Central Daylight Time on June 28, 2024 and click "watch live."

Visitation will be on Friday June 28, 2024 from 12:30 PM until 2:00 PM with Funeral Service to follow at 2:00 PM at St. George's Episcopal Church 4715 Harding Pike Nashville TN 37205.