Mary Lou Wootton, an emeritus International Mission Board missionary who shared the gospel among East Asian Peoples, died April 7, 2019. She was 82.

Wootton was born on July 16, 1936, in Chicago and was the daughter of Edward D. and Muriel Ewing Martin Teegarden. She married James L. Wootton on June 23, 1956, in Junction, Ill.

Wootton was raised in southern Illinois, and she attended Lockyear’s Business College in Evansville, Ind., earning an associate degree. For 28 years, Mary assisted her husband, James, with his career in education administration serving in Korea and other parts of East Asia. She worked with the Korean Woman’s Missionary Union, taught English as a second language to Korean women, taught music to delinquent boys, served as a librarian for TCIS, taught keyboarding, and shared the Bible. She was involved with the Southern Baptist Church throughout her life.

“As you can tell, there is an air of revival in Korea as surely as spring follows winter,” Wooton wrote in a newsletter during her missionary service, which began in 1970. “At both the Baptist Women and Baptist Men’s Retreats last winter, hearts and minds were joined together in a unity of spirit that was overflowing. We will soon be having mission meeting; so pray for all of us that this same unity of God’s Spirit will prevail and His will shall be done in all that we say and do.”

She was preceded in death by three of her children: Joseph Wayne Wootton, Mark Dudley Wootton, and Melissa Ann Phillips.

She is survived by her husband of 62 years, James L. Wootton; her son, James L. Wootton II; three daughters: Pamela Hickey, Sherry Holliday, and Natalie Holliday; 11 grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; and two siblings, George Teegarden and Ritha Yates.

Memorial contributions may be made to International Mission Board SBC, 3806 Monument Avenue, Richmond, VA 23230-3932 or the American Heart Association, Greater Midwest Affiliate, Memorials & Tributes, 3816 Paysphere Circle, Chicago, IL 60674.

Read an obituary here.