Obituary
In sadness, mixed with joy, we announce that our mother, MARY JANE UTTLEY, passed from this life on Friday, April 9, 2021 in Bradenton, Florida. She has completed her journey and is resting in the arms of Jesus, the One she loved and served all her life.
MARY JANE BOTT was born in York, PA, to Harry Virgil Bott and Agnes Emaline Scheffman Bott on July 3, 1925. As a young child, at special church meetings, Mary Jane made a commitment to follow the Lord. She attended the Bible Institute of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where she caught the eye of a friendly, red-haired fellow student, whose name was James (Jim) Morrison Uttley. Soon Mary Jane was joining Jim on his preaching assignments.
Mary Jane and Jim were married on June 5, 1948 in Philadelphia. Not long after that, while Jim was completing his seminary training, he became the pastor of Bethel Community Church, a little church in Blackwood Terrace, New Jersey. Jim and Mary Jane received the call to serve as missionaries in Haiti, and in January 1952 they flew to Haiti to begin their missionary service. After language school, they both began teaching in the Bible school and Mary Jane was teaching music. Although their first years of ministry were in the Bible school, they also served in the orphanage and lived out in the country where they ministered to Haitian pastors and their wives and encouraged the people they lived among. Mary Jane and Jim served just short of 20 years before returning to the U.S. where they pastored Community Baptist Church, Neptune, NJ (four years) and Middlesex Baptist Church, Middlesex, NY (22 years).
Those who went before Mary Jane include her parents, her husband, Jim Sr., sisters, Arlene and Barbara Ann, and their spouses, and aunts and uncles, nieces, and nephews.
She leaves behind her five children: Jim (Jan) Uttley, Jr., Ruth (LeRoy)Bechtel, Rebekah (Dave) Trieber, David (Cindy) Uttley, and Daniel (Ruth) Uttley. Fourteen grandchildren and ten great grandchildren. Nieces and nephews and grand nieces and grand nephews.
A Celebration of her life will be held at 2:00 P.M., Saturday, June 26, 2021 at LeTourneau Christian Center, 4950 Co Rd 11, Rushville, NY 14544.
The family suggests that gifts in Mary Jane’s memory may be made to support the Bible School in Haiti or Radio Lumiere. Send donations to World Team (MEBSH), 1431 Stuckert Rd, Warrington, PA 18976 or World Team Canada, 44 Saltsman Drive, Cambridge, ON N3H 4R7. Please make checks payable to World Team or World Team Canada and write “Haiti Bible School” or “Radio Lumiere” on the memo line.