Katrina Ely Carter, 81; Canon of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles

Katrina Ely Carter, 81, a sculptress, social activist and canon of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, died March 25 in Sierra Madre following a short illness related to heart disease.

The widow of the Rev. E. Lawrence Carter, who served as rector of St. John’s Church in Los Angeles, she was named a canon in October by the Rt. Rev. J. Jon Bruno, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.

Katrina Carter was active in All Saints Church in Pasadena, and in 1995 founded Grace Center, partially sponsored by that church, to aid sexually abused children and battered women.

Born in Greenwich, Conn., the former Katrina Ely earned an education degree from New York University and taught briefly in New York City schools.

During World War II, she worked as an occupational therapist and for U.S. Naval intelligence. After the death of her first husband, Clarke Murray, in 1957, she married Carter in 1960 and moved to Los Angeles.

Always interested in sculpture, she earned an art degree from Immaculate Heart College and began working in stone, even creating the tombstone for herself and her second husband. When her works were exhibited at the Episcopal Cathedral Center in 1999, Carter wrote: “In meditation, I touch and sense the weight of this stone that comes from the womb of the earth.... As I take hammer and chisel to the stone, I am both exhilarated and anxious.... I move into my inner resources looking for an epiphany.”