By Rita McInerney

Deacon Winston Leverett and his wife, Dorothy celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary Dec. 20 at a Liturgy celebrated by Father John Adamski at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Deacon Leverett served as minister to the sick and elderly at the parish for almost five years.

In his homily, Father Adamski, Shrine pastor, spoke of the caring manner in which the couple shared their vocation of marriage and especially their ministry with the poor and the elderly.

For many years the Leveretts have given unstinting support to Sisters Marcella Meyer and Roberta Joseph Sutton, CSJ, in their work among impoverished senior citizens living in older Atlanta neighborhoods.

The sisters first met the Leveretts through the Project Rehab program sponsored by Catholic Social Services from 1974 until 1980. Deacon Leverett, who had his own contracting business, began the work as a volunteer working Saturdays to make livable the dilapidated houses many senior citizens called home. When it received government funding, he directed the program for CSS.

Project Rehab had a dual purpose, Deacon Leverett said, to make senior citizens safe and more comfortable in their homes and to help jobless youths. “It kept them off the streets.” Through it, he later said, youths were trained in skills that led to permanent jobs.

The Leveretts visited the ill and lonely in their homes, bringing friendship, food and other needs. They took these friends to the doctor and other necessary appointments, and Deacon Leverett was always generous with his home repair skills.

Each year they helped the two sisters entertain their clients at a gala luncheon at Paschal’s. This was an event that the guests, mostly women, looked forward to. It gave them a chance to wear their best dresses and hats, socialize and enjoy good food.

Deacon Leverett was ordained by Archbishop Thomas Donnellan in 1982. That year, he and Deacon Leon Allain and Deacon Homer Woods were the first black Catholics ordained for the archdiocese. He was assigned to St. Paul of the Cross parish in northwest Atlanta.

Dorothy Leverett was the first kindergarten teacher at St. Paul of the Cross School. She taught there about six years.

The couple has one daughter, Beverlyn Cooper, and two granddaughters, Susan Cooper and Jennifer Martin.

Deacon Leverett, who is 80, still visits Shrine parishioners in their homes or in nursing homes. “I enjoy it because it’s helping somebody else. That’s what keeps me going.” And he still works with his close friends, Sisters Meyer and Sutton, anytime they have a problem.