In 1967, the Episcopal bishop of Missouri said it was time to put a stop to the church's segregation of women.

"There's no biological or theological reason why women" shouldn't serve, then-Bishop George L. Cadigan said. He urged that women be allowed as delegates at the church's General Conventions.

Three years later, Jane Black and 28 other women were officially seated as delegates to the 1970 General Convention.

Mrs. Black died Sunday (Nov. 1, 2009) at the Gatesworth in University City. She was 93, and had been a resident of Clayton.

Jane Jordan was born in St. Louis in 1916. She watched Charles Lindbergh pass her house in a ticker tape parade after his 1927 solo flight over the Atlantic.

She remembered placing second in a citywide dance contest behind classmate and friend Betty Grable, who left St. Louis to begin an acting career in Hollywood.

Mrs. Black graduated from what now is Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School, and attended Briarcliff College. She was an accomplished equestrian, continuing to ride horses into her 70s.

In 1966, she was the first woman to serve on a diocesan standing committee in the Episcopal church, church records show.

Three years later, she was elected to serve as a deputy to the national church's General Convention in Houston.

She remembered it as "a heart-pounding, clammy-hands experience," waiting nervously in the corridor with 28 other women as the seated delegates voted to admit them.

Mrs. Black was married for 53 years to Robert A. Black, an executive at International Shoe Co. He died in 1989.

She was a 1967 Globe-Democrat "Woman of Achievement" for civic responsibility.

A tribute will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Sunday at the St. Louis Woman's Club, 4600 Lindell Boulevard.

The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Monday at the Church of St. Michael and St. George, 6345 Wydown Boulevard, Clayton, followed by a graveside service at Bellefontaine Cemetery.

Among the survivors are two daughters, Sudie Shinkle of Town and Country and Bonnie Taylor of Crystal Lake Park; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Memorial contributions may be made to Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School, Church of St. Michael and St. George, the St. Louis Woman's Club Endowment Fund or BJC Hospice.