Portrait of Joan Norman. IMB Photo

Joan Watson Norman, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Colombia and Bolivia, died May 21, 2024. She was 93.  

Joan was born March 11, 1931, in Chico, Texas, to the late Carl and Edna Watson. She graduated from Chico High School; received the Bachelor of Business Administration from North Texas State College (now University of North Texas), Denton; and attended Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary (now Gateway Seminary) in Berkley, California. 

Joan met Tommy Norman while working in the cafeteria at North Texas State College. They were married on Feb. 16, 1951. She worked as a stenographer and secretary while Tommy completed college. In 1954, they moved from Texas to California to attend Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, where Joan worked part time while taking seminary classes. In June 1956 Immanuel Baptist Church in Richmond, California, called Tommy as pastor. While seeking appointment Joan wrote, “As I worked in this church with Girls’ Auxiliary and W.M.S. (now Girls in Action and Women on Mission), I began to feel the tug of missions at my heart. Many people have heard God’s call in the auxiliaries as young people – I heard it as a counselor. Once on my birthday, I noticed there were no names on the prayer calendar – I was struck with the thought, ‘Joan, perhaps your name should be there.’” 

Shortly after the birth of their son, Tommy attended a mission day service at Golden Gate and afterward told Joan he felt God’s call to foreign missions service. “From that time on we began to plan to go if the Lord continued to lead in that direction,” Joan wrote in a testimony while seeking appointment. 

In 1962, the International Mission Board appointed Tommy and Joan missionaries to Colombia, where they served in church planting and literature distribution. They also served in Bolivia. In October 1974, Joan wrote from the mission field, “Perhaps we will not finish our missionary careers in Colombia as the nationalistic spirit continues to grow. The fields are white unto harvest, but the laborers are few. We ask your prayers that we may make good use of the time in making Jesus Christ known to all men who will listen.” They retired from missionary service in 1991. 

Joan was preceded in death by Tommy, her husband of 72 years. 

She is survived by her three children: Linda, Larry, and Nancy; three grandsons; and one great-granddaughter. 

A memorial service was held June 1, at Mount Olivet Chapel of Greenwood Funeral Homes in Fort Worth, Texas, with burial in Burns Cemetery, Trenton, Texas.  

Read an obituary here.