Rev. Toni Freeman Stuart
1937-2026
The Reverend Toni Freeman Stuart (1937-2026), Priest Associate at St. Michael’s University Church, passed away on January 2, 2026, at Santa Barbara’s Cottage Hospital at the age of 88.
A woman of indomitable spirit, Toni fought cancer for over a decade. Before her passing, she kept her illness at bay just long enough to celebrate a final Thanksgiving and Christmas with her family. Shortly after Christmas, she returned to the hospital where, on New Year’s Day, Bishop John Harvey Taylor administered last rites.
Toni was born in Bakersfield to Jack and Elinor Freeman. She was the oldest of four children including her sister Sue Stratton and her brothers Dan Freeman and Larry Freeman. Her family lived in Alhambra, Los Feliz, and San Francisco before putting down roots in Pasadena.
While her family did not attend church, Toni was drawn to faith as a teenager, attending Pasadena Presbyterian Church with friends and eventually being christened there. One of Toni’s first jobs was providing children in her Pasadena neighborhood with swimming lessons during her summer breaks from Stanford. After graduating from Stanford in 1959, Toni worked as an advertising manager at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, where she met fellow employee and aspiring actor Arthur “King” Stuart, whom she married in 1960.
While raising three children in Pasadena, Toni became active in community issues and attended All Saints Episcopal Church. When Pasadena’s schools were integrated via mandatory busing in 1970, Toni helped lead a group of parents who enthusiastically welcomed the children as the buses dropped them off at Longfellow Elementary. After Toni and King divorced in 1974, Toni dedicated herself to public service. She became a community organizer in redeveloping neighborhoods, ran local political campaigns, served as a field representative for two City Councilpersons, and ran for City Council herself in 1979.
In the late 1970s, Toni’s faith and activism merged when she joined Clergy and Laity Concerned (CALC) as its Executive Secretary. CALC was then well known as an influential interfaith anti-war organization, originally formed in 1965 to oppose the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. In 1980, Toni and other CALC members demonstrated global courage by traveling to Iran as part of a civilian delegation to build goodwill during the hostage crisis. A 2019 BBC documentary about this, “A Call from the Hostage Takers,” is viewable on YouTube. At home, Toni was instrumental in forming a broad interfaith coalition that successfully blocked the basing of MX missiles on partially indigenous lands in the Great Basin of Nevada and Utah.
Toni entered the seminary at the Episcopal Theological School at Bloy House in Claremont in 1985, where she earned a Master of Arts degree in 1989. She was ordained to the priesthood in 1990, and served as the vicar at St. Francis in Atwater Village (1993-2000) and the rector at St. Matthew’s in Sacramento (2000-2005), before retiring to Carpinteria, where she continued her ministry at St. Michael’s and remained a dedicated member of Immaculate Heart Community, an ecumenical group created by nuns who broke from traditional Catholic authority in 1970 to dedicate themselves to social ju tice, feminist spirituality, and peace activism.
Toni found joy in the Carpinteria Writers’ Group, volunteering for Seal Watch, and raising canaries. In recent years, Toni helped revive and participated in a peace vigil on Friday evenings from 5-6pm, which continues today at the corner of Linden Ave. and Carpinteria Ave.
Toni is survived by her three children, Susan Stuart (Todd Shuman), Dan Stuart (Carla Almore-Stuart), and Jane Edel (Mike Edel); her four grandchildren, Tasha Stuart-Shuman, Max Edel, Stephen Edel, and Michael Stuart; and her siblings, Sue Stratton and Larry Freeman. Toni was preceded in death by her parents, Jack and Elinor Freeman; her brother, Dan Freeman; and her ex husband, King Stuart.
Toni’s Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, March 14, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. at St. Michael’s University Church, 6586 Picasso Road, Isla Vista, CA. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to St. Michael’s.
