Portrait of Uless Bergeron. IMB Photo

Uless Joseph Bergeron, Jr., an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Peru and Ecuador, died Feb. 17, 2024. He was 85.

Uless was born March 19, 1938., in Pass Christian, Mississippi, to the late Vivian and Uless Bergeron. He graduated from Pass Christian High School, and graduated from Pearl River Junior College in Poplarville, Mississippi, and Trenton School of Jewelry in Tennessee. He also attended Mississippi Southern College.

In 1967, he married Mary Lee Garcia. In adulthood, he heard and understood the gospel. In 1979, he professed faith in Christ. In 1986, he began volunteering as a missionary with the Home Mission Board (now North American Mission Board) and Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board). He served as a mission service corp. missionary for NAMB.

While seeking appointment with the IMB, he wrote, “My first volunteer mission trip was to Kenya in 1986. This experience caused me to grow in my faithfulness and commitment to Christ; it changed my priorities; it made me more aware of opportunities to minister in my own community; it changed my prayer life and directly affected my giving to missions.”

He explained, “Over the last eight years I have become more and more involved in the work of the kingdom. God has grown me to a place where I can say He is telling me, ‘Go.’ I feel that He has used everything in my life to prepare me to serve Him on the foreign field. I would give my life for Him and most certainly all the material possessions I have.”

In 1990, the International Mission Board appointed Uless and Mary missionaries to Peru. In Peru, he served as director of the Peruvian Conference Center, La Finca Bautista in Santa Eulalia.

Uless is preceded in death by his maternal grandparents, John and Essie Moran who were responsible for raising him; parents, Uless J. Bergeron, Sr., and Vivan Hart; sister, Marilyn Bergeron, and brother, Jack P. Bergeron.

He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Mary Lee Garcia Bergeron; sister, Carolyn Spencer of Gulfport, Mississippi; two nieces, Connie Bradley of Grand Bay, Alabama, and Tempie Tyler of Gulfport, Mississippi; nephew, Joseph Tyler of Theodore, Alabama, and brother-in-law, George A. Garcia, Jr., of Waveland, Mississippi.

A time and date for the funeral service is not known, but arrangements were handled by Edmond Fahey Funeral Home.

Read an obituary here.