The Reverend Dr. M. Rebecca Salisbury, 76, of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, died January 4, 2022. Rebecca was retired, a member without charge, of Murfreesboro Presbytery. She was the widow of the Reverend Dr. Loyce Standefer Estes who died June 9, 2010.

Rebecca was born in 1945 to the Reverend A.D. Salisbury, Jr., and Helen Margaret Lawson Salisbury in Corinth, Mississippi. She grew up in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and graduated from Central High School in Murfreesboro in 1963.

After high school, Rebecca attended Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. She graduated in 1967 with degrees in English and theater. In 1971, she completed a Masters Degree in communications at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Rebecca began her doctoral studies at SIU with a fellowship oral communication. In 1990, she completed a doctorate for the unaccredited University of Dunham. In 1999, she completed the Program of Alternate Studies.

Variously, Rebecca worked as an administrator or faculty member at Middle Tennessee State University, Millikin University in Decatur Illinois, Richmond Community College in Decatur, Wilson County High School in Lebanon, Tennessee, and Cumberland University in Lebanon.

Rebecca came under the care of Murfreesboro Presbytery as a candidate on April 25, 1996. She was licensed the same day. In November 1996, she was called to pastor Jackson Ridge Fellowship in Eagleville, Tennessee, outside of the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination. The group did adopt the Confession of Faith for Cumberland Presbyterians before issuing the call. She later pastored Christ Community Church in Rockvale, Tennessee. Rebecca was ordained December 19, 1999, at the Murfreesboro Cumberland Presbyterian Church with the presbyterial committee on the ministry acting as a commission.

In the Cumberland Presbyterian denomination, Rebecca served as pastor of Sturgis Cumberland Presbyterian Church (Covenant Presbytery) and Jefferson Cumberland Presbyterian Church (Trinity Presbytery). She served as a trustee for Memphis Theological Seminary. Rebecca and Loyce married November 23, 2000.

Rebecca’s civic and volunteer work included the American Rd Cross, June Anderson Scholarship Foundation, Tennessee Women’s Studies Association, Delta Kappa Gamma, Women in Higher Education, and the American Association of University Women. Her volunteer church work included Eagleville-Rockvale Ministerial Association, Tennessee Association of Churches, the Coalition for Appalachia Ministry, and Tennessee Council for Campus Ministries.