In memoriam: Emeritus missionary Betty Lou Carroll, 92

Betty Carroll

Mrs. Betty Lou Carroll

Betty Lou Wilt Carroll, an emeritus International Mission Board missionary who shared the gospel among Sub-Saharan African peoples, died Jan. 3, 2019. She was 92.

Born in Lakeland, Fla., on Dec. 16, 1926, she attended Carson-Newman College (now University) in Jefferson City, Tenn., where she met her husband, Webster Carroll. After graduating in June 1948, the couple married and moved to Fort Worth, Texas, to attend Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where she earned a master’s degree in religious education and he earned a master’s of divinity.

After three years in a local church pastorate in Itasca, Texas, the couple was appointed as missionaries in July 1956 to Tanzania, then called Tanganyika. They moved to Uganda in 1963 to help launch Southern Baptist work in the country. Alongside fellow missionaries, the Carrolls reported, they helped plant 126 Baptist churches with more than 12,000 members. They walked alongside national believers through the reign of Idi Amin, and they sought to help restore both spiritual and physical health to Ugandan peoples in subsequent years. After completing their service through IMB (then the Foreign Mission Board) in 1983, they continued mission work in Africa until 1998.

Carroll was a member at First Baptist Church, Lakeland, Fla., for years and then at First Baptist Church, Bluefield, W.V. After her husband’s death, she became an integral part of a home church fellowship in the home of Bill and Karen Rich of Bluefield.

She is preceeded in death by her husband, Webster Carroll. Survivors include her two children, son Tim Carroll (Jennifer), and daughter Melody Harrell (Sam); six grandchildren: Allison Falcione, Brittany Zellhoefer, Morganne Dry, Corwin Harrell, Christopher Harrell, Carter Harrell; and six great-grandchildren.

Memorial services were conducted Jan. 12 at Mercer Funeral Home in Bluefield, W.V., and Grandview Memory Gardens in Bluefield, Va.


Read a full obituary here.