Martha Francis Stewart-Jackson

Martha Francis Bland Stewart-Jackson passed peacefully, surrounded by her family, on Tuesday, February 21, 2023, at IU Health Methodist Hospital, Indianapolis, Indiana, at the age of 90. Martha was born September 19, 1932, at home in rural Marshall County, Illinois, the fourth of seven surviving children of Flavil Harold Bland and Irma Waughop Bland.

When Martha was an infant, her parents traveled to Iowa to visit her mother’s sister who attended Eureka College with (President) Ronald Reagan. While there, “Dutch” gave the Blands a tour of the radio station where he was announcing a basketball game, carrying baby Martha in his arms. With three brothers and three sisters, Martha grew up on a farm without indoor plumbing but plenty of animals to care for and a swimming hole nearby. When she was in fourth grade, the family moved to Bethany, Illinois, a small town in the central part of the state, to open F. H. Bland & Sons John Deere Implement Dealers. Martha graduated Bethany High School in 1950.

Her love and passion of caring for others led her to study nursing at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana where she lived at 4-H House and participated in synchronized swimming, briefly considering training for the Olympics at the suggestion of her coach. Her course of study included a time of student nursing at Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago. There, she met an intriguing sixteen-year-old patient with lumbar vertebral fractures from a construction accident. Despite their age difference of four years, love won out, although they kept it secret for their first year of dating. Martha completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) in 1955, and she married that patient, Harry Effinger Stewart, on June 29, 1957.

Throughout more than forty years as a registered nurse, Martha worked in both Champaign and Danville, Illinois, as well as Indianapolis, Indiana, in various areas: medical surgical and obstetrics at a hospital, an orthopedic surgeon’s office, the Veterans Administration Hospital in Danville, the Vermilion County Health Department, and home health care and a referral phone service in Indianapolis. She also taught nursing at Lakeview Hospital in Danville.

Unable to have biological children, Martha was blessed to adopt a son and a daughter who she named as the biggest blessings of her life. She was devoted to their upbringing and encouraged many pursuits including learning music, theater, competitive swimming, gymnastics, 4-H, and academic excellence as well as regular church attendance and a strong Christian faith.

Martha was a lifelong learner who was always reading about health, science, conservative politics, American history, and the Bible. She and Harry loved to travel and enjoyed trips to Scotland and South Africa in the early years of marriage as well as trips to Mexico, Florida, the West, and several cruises in their later years. Her interests included gardening, birds, wildlife art, the music of the 1940s and 1950s, and many city activities during their years in Chicago.

Martha was an active member first of Central Christian Church in Danville, Illinois, and then Connection Pointe Christian Church in Brownsburg, Indiana. She will be dearly missed by her family.

She is survived by her son, Leslie John Stewart and his wife Laura Stewart of New Lenox, Illinois; her daughter, Meghan Carol Stewart Carver and her husband Steve Carver of Greenfield, Indiana; eight grandchildren, Zachary and Olivia Stewart and Holly, Laura, Benjamin, Noelle, Samuel, and Andrew Carver; three siblings and many nieces and nephews; and many friends.

Contributions may be made to Young America’s Foundation, 11480 Commerce Park Drive, Sixth Floor, Reston, VA 20191, or to Hillsdale College, 33 E. College St., Hillsdale, MI 49242.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.neptunesociety.com/location/indianapolis-cremation for the Stewart-Jackson family.