Portrait of Carolyn Smith. IMB Photo

Carolyn Brand Smith, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Brazil, died March 7, 2023, in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. She was 91.  

Carolyn was born February 24, 1932, in Orlando, Florida, to the late Joseph L. Brand and Odessa E. (Dye) Brand. She graduated from Orlando High School in Orlando, Florida, and was a graduate of Mather School of Nursing at Southern Baptist Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi.  

Carolyn was married to William (Bill) Louis Smith on August 21, 1953. The couple worked in churches in Mississippi, Georgia and Florida before their appointment as foreign missionaries to Brazil. Carolyn also worked as a nurse.  

“I especially enjoyed the pastorate, but even then, I feel that God was using many things to point us to the foreign mission field,” Carolyn wrote when she and Bill sought appointment with the Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board). “As we prayed for missionaries during the weeks of special prayer emphasis, I would ask myself if God were calling us to a special place.” In 1959 while Bill was pastoring Plymouth Baptist Church in Plymouth, Florida, the Smiths felt God was definitely calling them to serve Him in Brazil and committed their lives to foreign mission service. 

In 1963, the International Mission Board appointed Bill and Carolyn missionaries to Brazil where they served for more than 30 years.  

Carolyn is preceded in death by William Louis Smith, her husband of more than 60 years; son-in-law Dwight L. Gladfelter, Jr.; and great-granddaughter Grace C. Mann. 

She is survived by daughters Jeanne E. Smith (Wayne G. Sposato); Mary Anne Smith (Jerald D. Williams); and sons, William L. Smith, Jr. (Marina Ford Smith); Claude B. Smith (Georgia Emory Smith); David F. Smith; and adoptive daughter Mirian Delfiol Smith (Márcio P. Viera); 13 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren. 

A memorial service was held April 21, at First Baptist Church in Pass Christian, Mississippi, with burial at Ebenezer Baptist Church, in Liberty, Mississippi.  

Read an obituary here.