Alice June Hurst, 1925-2021
IMB Photo
Alice June Hurst, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Honduras, Panama and Mexico died Dec. 7, 2021. She was 96.
Hurst was born on Aug. 30, 1925, in Tampa, Florida, to the late George H. and Alice Fern Leavitt. Her family later moved to San Antonio, Texas, where she graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School. She was licensed as a registered nurse after graduating from General Hospital School of Nursing, Kansas City, Missouri. She received the Bachelor of Arts from William Jewell College, Liberty, Missouri, and attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas.
When seeking missionary appointment, Hurst wrote that during nurse’s training, she was influenced by Dorcas Hauk, who was later to serve as a missionary in Paraguay with her husband, Franklin Fowler. “It was from her that I learned of the importance of foreign missions,” wrote Hurst. Later, at a Baptist Student Union convention while in nurse’s training, Hurst wrote, “I knew God was calling me to be His witness on a foreign mission field.”
After entering William Jewell College, she met Harold Hurst, also a mission volunteer, and they were married in November 1947. The Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) appointed them missionaries in 1952. On the mission field, Alice did evangelistic and medical work.
After they moved to Richmond, Virginia, where Harold worked at the International Mission Board, Alice resumed her nursing career.
Hurst was preceded in death by Harold, her husband of 65 years. She is survived by four children: Daniel Hurst (Marcia), Timothy Hurst (Nancy), Martha Joyner (Charlie) and David Hurst (Elizabeth); 10 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
A memorial service was held Dec. 15, 2021, at Derbyshire Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia, with burial at Corinth Baptist Church Cemetery, New Kent, Virginia
Donations in her memory may be made to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, IMB, 3806 Monument Avenue, Richmond, VA 23230, or online at Generosity Resource Center – IMB Generosity.
Read an obituary here.