Title
Last Name	Leighton
First Name	George
Middle Name	E.
Maiden Name
Nick Name
Place of Birth	Dexter, ME
Date of Birth	1871-07-30
Place of Death	Portland, ME
Date of Death	1953-03-18
Publication	The Eastern Gazette 3-26-1953, p.2
Obituary	THE REV. GEORGE E. LEIGHTON, D. D. Word was received here of the death on March 18 of a Dexter native, the Rev. George E. Leighton, D. D., minister emeritus of the Somerville, Mass. Universalist Church. He died after a brief illness at his home in Portland, where he had made his home for seven years. Funeral services were held Saturday afternoon at the Westbrook Universalist Church. Interment was in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, Dexter. His widow, Mrs. Maude Sweetser Leighton, is the only survivor. Born in Dexter, July 30, 1871, son of Delano and Mary Linnell Leighton; he was graduated from Dexter High School and Tufts College in 1894. After he was ordained in the Westbrook Universalist Church in 1895, he held a pastorate in Skowhegan for several years and one at Portsmouth, N. H., for 10 years. Doctor Leighton was superintendent of the New Hampshire Universalist Churches in 1910 and in 1914 accepted a similar position in Massachusetts which he held for eight years. In 1922 he went to Somerville as pastor of the Universalist Church there and remained 23 years, retiring in 1945. He returned to Portland that year and was active as provisional pastor of the Congress Square and Westbrook Universalist Churches. He received his Doctor of Divinity degree at Tufts College the same time that President Calvin Coolidge was awarded a degree by the school. Doctor Leighton was a member of Wade Camp, Sons of Union Veterans, and at one time was state commander and state chaplain of the SUV. He and Mrs. Leighton observed their 57th wedding anniversary last December.