Barbara H. Brown, 1929-2023
IMB Photo

Barbara H. Brown, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Zimbabwe and Tanzania, died May 15, 2023. She was 93.

Barbara Hicks was born Nov. 25, 1929, in Madisonville, Tennessee. She graduated from Madisonville High School in Madisonville, Tennessee, and received a Bachelor of Science from University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, and a Master of Library Sciences from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. She also attended Maryville College, East Tennessee State University, and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

After finishing her bachelor’s degree and teaching, she felt called to seminary. While studying at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Barbara met and married Charles E. Brown. Before working on her Master of Library Sciences degree, she taught and worked as a junior high librarian. After 24 short years of marriage, Charles died, and Barbara became a widow.

After Charles’ death, Barbara felt called to serve as a volunteer missionary. Eventually, she felt the call of God to full time missions.

“I want to offer myself for foreign mission service. In so doing I feel that I am putting my hand in his and following step by step,” Barbara said in seeking appointment with the Foreign Mission Board.

The International Mission Board appointed Barbara Brown a missionary to Zimbabwe. She later served in Tanzania.

Barbara is preceded in death by her husband, Charles Brown.

She is survived by her sons, Doug (Mary Sue) and Paul (Lisa) Brown, and two granddaughters.

A funeral service was held May 18, at Witt Baptist Church in Morristown, Tennessee, with burial in Hamblen Memory Gardens.

Read an obituary here.