Happy Birthday Anna Magee!

Anna Magee

January 21, 1843 - December 12, 1923

Here’s to Anna Justina Magee who was born on this day in 1843. She’s the Magee of Philadelphia’s Magee Rehabilitation Hospital that is now part of Jefferson Health, established with funds she bequeathed for that purpose. In her lifetime she was also a vital part of St. Stephen’s. She’s the youngest of a large and close family that became active members of the congregation in the early 1860s: Caroline Kneass and James Magee, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad until his death in 1878. At the end of her life, to celebrate St. Stephen’s centennial in 1923, in addition to extensive repairs, Anna funded Louis C. Tiffany’s dramatic redecoration of the church interior that’s still in place today—and is still essentially unpublished! She first gave the chancel to commemorate her sister Fanny in December 1917. In turn, at her death the congregation honored Anna with St. Stephen’s last memorial window, representing the biblical widow Dorcas beloved by her community for her charity to the needy.

—Suzanne Glover Lindsay, St. Stephen’s historian and curator