Dorothy Maddox, 1930-2021

Dorothy Lee Rogers Maddox, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel among East Asian Affinity Peoples in Japan, died July 13, 2021. She was 91. 

Maddox was born April 6, 1930, in Etowah, Tennessee, to the late Ike and Etheleen Rogers. The Rogers family settled in Nashville, where Maddox grew up on Waldkirch Avenue surrounded by neighbors who soon became friends. She graduated from West End High School there in 1948.  

Dorothy left Nashville to attend Carson-Newman College (now University), Jefferson City, Tennessee. Her time in college was cut short when her mother died unexpectedly, and she went home to care for her father and to work. At her home church, Judson Baptist in Nashville, she met Wayne Maddox, when he came to work on the church staff. They married in 1956 and began their life’s work in Christian ministry.  

Dorothy supported Wayne in his work at First Baptist Church in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. While there, Dorothy and Wayne felt God’s call to move to the island of Okinawa, now part of Japan. The Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) appointed them missionaries in 1969. According to her family, Dorothy said that God put her favorite places—the mountains of Tennessee and the beaches of Florida—together and called it “Okinawa.”  

The Maddoxes arrived in Okinawa in 1970 and stayed in Japan until they retired in 1990. They then settled in Pensacola, Florida, where they continued their life in ministry. At First Baptist Church of Pensacola, Dorothy and Wayne began assisting those in need through the Samaritan Hands Ministry. Dorothy also volunteered as a counselor with Habitat for Humanity. In 2013 she moved to Tennessee to be close to her daughters and grandchildren.  

There she became a member of First Baptist of Jefferson City.  

Maddox was preceded in death by her husband of 45 years, Wayne. She is survived by her daughters, Millie Maddox Ellis (Bill) and Barianne Maddox Wilson, six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.   

A celebration of life will be held Aug. 20 at First Baptist Church of Pensacola.

Read an obituary here.