Anne Marlon Fricke, 1931-2022
IMB Photo

Anne Marlon Fricke, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Mexico and Costa Rica, died Feb. 23, 2022. She was 90.

Fricke was born April 10, 1931, in Haleyville, Alabama, to the late James Albert Chambers and Pearl McNutt Chambers. Her father was a pastor and church planter. Anne received the Bachelor of Arts from Baylor University, Waco, Texas, and studied religious education at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas.

After her first year of college, Anne worked at the Baptist conference center in Ridgecrest, North Carolina, where she met Robert Carl Fricke. Anne and Bob married Aug. 14, 1953, at North Fort Worth Baptist Church.

Anne wrote when seeking missionary appointment that she was 9 years old when she first felt she wanted to be a missionary. “I had always loved to read stories about missionaries and was thrilled when a missionary came to speak in our church and stay in our home,” she wrote. “My parents were very ’mission-minded’ and we had many such visitors. I especially remember when Clyde Dotson and his family, missionaries to Africa, visited us and talked about their work. It was then I first decided I wanted to be a missionary.”

The Frickes served as missionaries in Cuba and Miami with the North American Mission Board, and in Mexico and Costa Rica with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. According to her family, Anne loved teaching children and women in her church and serving as a seminary librarian.

Anne was a member of Gambrell Street Baptist Church in Fort Worth, where she taught preschoolers in Sunday School during her retirement.

Anne was preceded in death by her husband of 64 years, Robert Carl Fricke of Fort Worth, and her first-born son, David Michael Fricke of San Antonio, Texas.

She is survived by three sisters, Carol Oaks of Gadsden, Alabama, and Sarah Babbitt and Sue King, both of Kodiak, Alaska; one daughter, Lynda Crawford (Bruce) of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; two sons, Karl Fricke (Dana) of Hurst, Texas, and Mark Fricke (Debby) of Ozona, Texas; daughter-in-law, Valarie Fricke of San Antonio, Texas; 11 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

A celebration of life will take place April 9, 2022, at Gambrell Street Baptist Church.

Read an obituary here.