Portrait of Florence Frederick. IMB Photo

Florence Frederick, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in the French West Indies and France, died March 19, 2025. She was 86.  

Florence was born March 18, 1939, in New Orleans, Louisiana, to the late Richard K. and Edith Ramke Blush. She graduated from Edwards (Mississippi) High School and received the Bachelor of Arts from Mississippi College, Clinton, Mississippi.  

She accepted Jesus as her Savior and was baptized at the age of 12. While seeking missionary appointment she wrote, “G.A.’s (Woman’s Missionary Union organization for girls) and G.A. camps have had the greatest influence upon my call to missions. Through the years since Intermediate G.A.’s, I have felt called to missions. I attended Ridgecrest at sixteen and Glorieta when seventeen. These experiences strengthened my sense of call.”  

She married Wayne Frederick on Aug. 17, 1960, five days after her college graduation. Two weeks later, they moved to New Orleans for seminary. During this time, she taught the seventh grade. After seminary, they moved to Mississippi where they served in different churches.  

While seeking appointment she wrote, “When Wayne felt the call to foreign missions in November 1968, I encouraged him to write the Foreign Mission Board. … I have now come to feel this is right and good and am willing to go as God leads.” 

In 1969, the International Mission Board appointed Wayne and Florence missionaries to the French West Indies. They later served in France. Her family said Florence faithfully followed her husband all over the world serving as his editor, typist, pianist, cook, confidant and coworker in ministry and church planting. She enjoyed teaching other women how to study and dig deep into God’s Word. 

She is survived by her husband of 64 years, Lewis Wayne Frederick; daughters, Edith Wilhite of Blue Springs, Mississippi, Amy Griffin (Eric) of Clayton, North Carolina, Iris Horne (Steve) of Oxford, Mississippi, and Jeanne Curry (David) of Midlothian Texas; 12 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.  

A funeral service was held March 23 at Camp Creek Baptist Church in Guntown, Mississippi, with burial in Camp Creek Cemetery.  

Read an obituary here.