In memoriam: Missionary emeritus Caroline Caudill Jukes, 87

Caroline Caudill Jukes, 1934-2021

Caroline Caudill Jukes, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel among American Affinity Peoples in Bahamas, died June 3, 2021, at Christian Health Center in Bowling Green, Kentucky. She was 87. 

Jukes was born May 14, 1934, in Farmers, Kentucky, to the late Ira T. Caudill and Iva DeHart Caudill. She considered Morehead, Kentucky, her hometown. She received the Associate of Arts from Pikeville (Kentucky) College (now University of Pikeville) and the Bachelor of Arts degree from Morehead (Kentucky) State University. She married Herbert B. Jukes. 

She worked as a teacher in Pikeville; Bartow, Fla.; in Gainesville and Sarasota, Florida; and in Louisville and Hazard, Kentucky. She has also served as a summer staffer at Cedarmore Baptist Assembly, Bagdad, Kentucky, and as a summer missionary in Whitesburg, Kentucky, sponsored by the Kentucky Baptist Convention 

In 1983, the Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) named the Jukeses missionaries to the Bahamas, where he was to teach and she was to be a church and home worker. Before then, the Jukeses had been living in Hazard, Kentucky, where he was pastor of First Baptist Church.  

The couple wrote in their Christmas newsletter in 1984: “Today we opened the one box we brought with decorations for Christmas so we could see what it was we packed away two years ago. We brought only our most special remembrances. … What the box contained is not as noteworthy as the label on the box. When we put away our decorations in 1982, we packed this box securely for overseas travel and wrote on the outside, “Christmas in Nassau.” This was one week before we sent to the Foreign Mission Board our biographical sketches, doctrinal beliefs and formal application papers. It was eight months before appointment, but we were that confident that this was just where the Lord wanted us to be.” 

The Jukeses retired after serving 10 years. Back in Kentucky, Caroline was a member of First Baptist Church of Bowling Green and a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. According to her family, she loved to participate in her churches as the pianist, organist and Sunday School teacher and served in the Women’s Missionary Union. 

She was preceded in death by an infant son, Stephen H. Jukes. Survivors include her husband of 63 years, Herbert B. Jukes; two sons, Jonathan H. Jukes (Pamela) of Bowling Green and David H. Jukes of Palm Bay, Florida; daughters, Margaret Jukes Boone (Bruce) of Newark, Delaware, and Nancy Jukes Dunham (Paul) of Clearwater, Florida; five grandchildren; and a sister, Anne C. Whitt. 

A funeral service was held June 6 at J.C. Kirby & Son Lovers Lane Chapel, Bowling Green, with burial June 7 in Lee Cemetery, Morehead, Kentucky.  


Read an obituary here.