Portrait of Lucy Pat Curl. IMB Photo

Lucy Pat Curl, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in the United Kingdom, died Feb. 5, 2025, in Orlando, Florida. She was 85. 

Lucy Pat was born Aug. 24, 1939, in Louisville, Kentucky, to the late Dr. George W. Redding and Carolyn Rogers Redding. She received the Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown (Kentucky) College. 

She came to faith in Christ during a revival meeting at Georgetown Baptist Church when she was 7 years old. Her father, head of the Bible department at nearby Georgetown College, baptized her. As a college student majoring in piano, she made a public decision to follow Christ vocationally. Following graduation from college in 1960, she married Bill Curl. By the time they had been married six years, Bill had completed seminary and become a pastor, and they had four children.  

While seeking missionary appointment she recalled that at the Southern Baptist Convention in Las Vegas in June of 1989, after praying about it several times, Bill felt led to stop at the Foreign Mission Board booth and fill out a form to let the board know of their availability. She wrote, “We have always felt close to foreign mission work, have visited several mission fields for short terms of service and have sought to have open hearts should the Lord call us. To this point we have always felt His clear leading to serve where we have been located. … We have both felt strongly compelled recently to open the lines of communication with the Foreign Mission Board in the event that God has a specific place for us abroad.”  

In 1990, the International Mission Board appointed Bill and Lucy Pat missionaries to the United Kingdom. Committed to being a team in ministry, in everything they did they loved people well, said their family. As a gifted musician, she made music, served in church and home ministries, taught, encouraged and cared for others. 

Lucy Pat was preceded in death by a granddaughter, Kalynn Curl.  

She is survived by her husband of 64 years, Bill Curl; and her children Beth Menendez (Pete), Philip Curl (Miriam), Carol Rickman (Mark) and Scott Curl (Crystal); 11 grandchildren and six great grandchildren.  

A celebration of life service was held Feb. 16 at First Baptist Church of Orlando, Florida. 

Read an obituary here.