![\"Rev.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/FMLD4LREPBB3RP4HRT7GVVM2OQ.jpg\")
Rev. Nora Teasley looks at old photos of the church on The Fellowship Baptist Church’s 50th anniversary in 2013.Jan Somma-Hammel | Advance\/SILive.com<\/p>\nSTATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Rev. Nora Teasley, a Staten Islander who dedicated her life to helping others through her work and in her capacity as an assistant pastor at Fellowship Baptist Church, has died. She was 81. <\/p>\n
The beloved church and community leader, who also brought prayer into the community by visiting people too frail to venture to Sunday services, leaves a legacy of giving, faith and family.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s adored by everyone. People speak extremely highly of her. She always went out of her way to check in with her parishioners,\u201d said her granddaughter Eleanora Sullivan. \u201cIf they didn\u2019t have what they needed at the time, she would give them whatever resources she could obtain to assist them.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was always focused on giving to others, but Rev. Teasley also had the strength to overcome obstacles in her own life, including health challenges and hardships. <\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother was a survivor,\u201d her daughter Felicia Sullivan said. <\/p>\n
Rev. Teasley was born and raised in Gainesville, Georgia, the oldest of two girls born to Thurmond and Ella Mae McMullen. She moved to New York City, settling first in the Bronx, then in Harlem, and finally on Staten Island. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe loved Staten Island,\u201d said Eleanora Sullivan. \u201cAs she got older, I wanted to bring her closer to me in the Bronx, and she just refused. Staten Island was her home.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Staten Island, Rev. Teasley began attending services at Fellowship Baptist Church in Mariner\u2019s Harbor, where she would become an integral part of the ministry.<\/p>\n
Rev. Nora Teasley looks at old photos of the church on The Fellowship Baptist Church’s 50th anniversary in 2013.Jan Somma-Hammel | Advance\/SILive.com<\/p>\n
Felicia Sullivan said becoming a reverend was part of her mother\u2019s purpose.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe got saved in that church and decided she wanted to be on the ministry board,\u201d Eleanora Sullivan said. \u201cShe proceeded to move forward in the ministry, becoming an evangelist, first, then going to a reverend, and then, of course, an assistant pastor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rev. Teasley gave sermons every third Sunday of the month. \u201cHer sermons were about bringing people to Christ,\u201d Felicia Sullivan said. <\/p>\n
On social media, Fellowship Baptist Church\u2019s senior pastor, Rev. Alfredo Archibald, wrote of Rev. Teasley, \u201cOur hearts are so heavy, but we take comfort in knowing she is now resting peacefully with our Lord and Savior. She was an extraordinary servant leader, the matriarch of our church, often encouraging, instructing and comforting us in her own humble way. She was a true woman of God, filled with wisdom, grace and strength who extended love and kindness to so many, including my family. <\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough her presence will be deeply missed, the legacy she leaves behind is living, not gone. Every soul she lifted, every heartfelt prayer she prayed, every genuine act of compassion she offered continues to bear so much fruit.\u201d <\/p>\n
A spirit of giving<\/p>\n
Rev. Teasley gave of herself freely and with her whole heart.<\/p>\n
She was dedicated to fostering children. One of the boys she fostered, Lawrence, arrived three days after his birth. Rev. Teasley took care of him and nurtured him. She ended up adopting him. As he grew up and struggled with ADHD and learning disabilities, Rev. Teasley made sure he got the services he needed. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe was instrumental in the person he has become today,\u201d said Felicia Sullivan. <\/p>\n
Rev. Teasley was also dedicated to those in the community struggling. <\/p>\n
![\"Rev.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/AVJ4BRDW4BGQNCFI4ZXICQJPGY.jpg\")
Rev. Nora Teasley, second from the right, was one of six women honored in 1997 as “Women Who Work Hard and Make a Difference.”Frank Johns | Advance\/SILive.com<\/p>\n
On the first Sunday of the month, she ventured out to serve parishioners who couldn\u2019t make it to the church. \u201cShe traveled to give Communion to the sick and shut in,\u201d Eleanora Sullivan said. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe was always donating something, whether it be clothes, whether it be financial, or food. She would create food pantries at the church or her building in Mariner\u2019s Harbor.\u201d<\/p>\n
For 14 years, Rev. Teasley worked at Chase Manhattan Bank, first as a teller and then as an account specialist, but later in her career she pursued work that was also centered around helping people. She worked at a daycare, a senior center, and United Cerebral Palsy.<\/p>\n
![\"Rev.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/5DQETNYNJFEBTOAS62UJQWVNKM.jpg\")
Rev. Nora Teasley, second from the right, was honored in 1996 by the Trowel Club of Silver Lake Lodge at its African-American Achievement Awards Luncheon.Irving Silverstein | Advance\/SILive.com<\/p>\n
She received numerous recognitions over the years for her decades of dedicated community service. <\/p>\n
A long-time resident at the Mariner\u2019s Harbor Houses, she was a tenant leader in the 1990\u2019s, including as a neighborhood patrol leader and the community\u2019s selected representative at state Neighborhood Based Alliance meetings.<\/p>\n
Rev. Teasley also pursued a higher education when she was in her 50s and 60s. She obtained a bachelor\u2019s degree from BMCC and went on to earn her master\u2019s degree at College of Staten Island. <\/p>\n
![\"Rev.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/P24L2WH7R5D7TKDP5EIQ2HJDRI.jpg\")
Rev. Nora Teasley pictured at the College of Staten island Commencement where she was awarded a master’s degree, June 2 , 2011.Jan Somma-Hammel | Advance\/SILive.com\u2018Walk by faith and not by sight\u2019<\/p>\n
Rev. Teasley bravely faced a myriad of health issues: cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, aneurysms, Covid, and pneumonia. Through it all, she relied on her faith, teaching her parishioners through example. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe showed them how to walk by faith and not by sight,\u201d Felicia Sullivan said. \u201cThat means even though you\u2019re going through something, God will bring you through it. Regardless of what the situation was, how hard it was, or what she was going through, she still believed that God was going to bring her through.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was a firecracker,\u201d Eleanora Sullivan said. \u201cShe was very direct with her communication, very headstrong. She had a great sense of humor. Her heart was pure. The type of love that she had for people, she may not have verbally expressed it, but she would show you in so many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
Survivors and services<\/p>\n
Rev. Teasley is survived by her sister, Kathleen McMullen; daughters, Fannie Sullivan and Felicia Sullivan and son, Lawrence Teasley; grandchildren, Eleanora Sullivan, Jason Sullivan, Ronald Johnson Jr., Kaitlyn Roberts and Lorenzo Teasley; and great grandchildren Issac Sullivan, Nora Sullivan and Nora-Lee Sullivan. <\/p>\n
Visitation will be Sunday, Nov. 23, 3-5 p.m. at Fellowship Baptist Church, 3036 Richmond Terr. The funeral service will follow from 5 – 8 p.m.<\/p>\n
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