Dorothy Rose Sullivan Blair, 1922-2022
IMB Photo
Dorothy Rose Sullivan Blair, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Argentina and North America, died Jan. 31, 2022, in Richmond, Indiana. She was 99.
Blair was born Oct. 16, 1922, in Monticello, Arkansas, to the late John Edward and Artie “Suga” Duke Sullivan. She graduated from Paschal High School, Fort Worth, Texas. She received the Bachelor of Arts from Texas Wesleyan College (now University), Fort Worth, and the Master of Religious Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth. Blair taught elementary school in Fort Worth for more than three years.
She met Judson Blair at Broadway Baptist Church, Fort Worth, and his influence led her to consider missionary service. By the time they became engaged, she expressed a definite call to missions. The Blairs were married March 15, 1946.
In 1949, the Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) appointed the Blairs as missionaries to Argentina, where she taught religious education and English at the international seminary in Buenos Aires.
In 1956, the Blairs transferred to the Baptist Spanish Publishing House in El Paso, Texas, where Dorothy worked as an editor. The Blairs retired Jan, 1, 1990, after 39 years of missionary service. In 1997, they moved to San Angelo, Texas, and after Judson’s death in 2010, Dorothy moved to Hagerstown, Indiana.
She was also preceded in death by a son, Judson Paul Blair.
Survivors include her children, Norma “Línda” Lynn Morris (Jim) of Sanger, Texas, Martha “Tita” Louise Kolb (Ronnie) of Hagerstown, and William Edward Blair (Ivy) of Elizabethton, Tennessee; 16 grandchildren; 46 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
A celebration of her life will be held Oct. 16, 2022, which would have been her 100th birthday.
Read an obituary here.