Portrait of Elaine Meador. IMB Photo
Elaine Meador, former Southern Baptist international missionary and wife of long-time International Mission Board leader the late Clyde D. Meador, died May 27, 2025. She was 78.
IMB President Paul Chitwood commented following Elaine’s passing. “I’ll always be grateful for Elaine’s dedication to the Lord and to His mission around the world through the IMB,” he said.
“She was a woman of grace and faith and a faithful partner to Clyde, but far beyond that, she used her own gifts and calling to fulfill the Great Commission and encourage generations to reach the lost with the gospel.”
The Meadors began their careers with IMB in 1974 when they were appointed as missionaries to Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation. For the next 14 years, the couple served in a range of roles. After language study in Bandung, Elaine served as a church and home worker in Medan, Semarang, Purwokerto and Jakarta, Indonesia; in Bangkok, Thailand; and in Singapore, where her husband was based to handle missionary administrative duties.
John Brady, IMB vice president for Global Engagement, said about Elaine and Clyde when they retired: “Here’s a couple that love language, they love crossing cultures, they love strange food, but most of all they love our local partners with a deep and abiding passion. And all of this rests within a desire by [Clyde] and Elaine both to see the gospel flow through our lives and into the lives of the lost around the world.”
Elaine Meador, standing third from right, and her husband Clyde, far right, began their careers with IMB in 1974 when they were appointed as missionaries to Indonesia. IMB Photo
Although Elaine resigned as a missionary in 2001 when her husband joined the home office staff, she continued her international missions involvement, especially as a volunteer with IMB’s prayer office.
Jerry Rankin, IMB president 1993-2010, noted how disciplined Elaine was in spending time with God in the early morning. “When I think of Elaine, I think of her getting up every morning. She takes the time to read — and really study — the Word of God. She is not a person that flies through a passage. … She takes time to understand, to be silent, to give the time to being with the Lord.”
She also memorized Scripture as part of her devotional time, and her prayers were grounded in Scripture, said Eleanor Witcher, former director of IMB’s prayer office who worked with Elaine.
Joanie Marsh, long-time prayer office staff member, printed and kept an email from Elaine that read, “This morning I prayed this for you: Psalm 103.”
Elaine Meador speaks during a national women’s mobilization event. IMB Photo
Rankin, who had also served in Indonesia, remembered Elaine’s support. “I still have in the cover pocket of my journal letters that Elaine wrote of encouragement, praying Scripture and intercession for us in challenging times. This was awesome, this ministry of encouragement and personal bonding.”
Witcher said that Elaine’s passion for praying for Muslims shaped her volunteer involvement. She developed and managed the “Beyond the Wall” website focusing on Muslims, contributing prayers regularly for 10 years.
She also helped create a 31-day photo prayer calendar, “Call to Prayer; Interceding on Behalf of Muslims for their Salvation: My Heart’s Desire” and assisted with both volumes of Voices of the Faithful, each a compilation of daily devotional stories from missionaries serving around the world.
Witcher said Elaine not only promised to pray for personal concerns but also came back weeks or months later and asked how the prayers had been answered.
The Meadors were known among missionary teams and staff for steady, unflappable leadership. Yet long years of service appear to testify to the Meadors’ simple steps of obedience even more than to their strategic insights and leadership.
“When you look at Clyde’s and Elaine’s lives, it’s step-by-step obedience in the same direction towards the Father’s will for their lives,” John Brady said.
Elaine Meador, center, worships alongside her husband Clyde, at an IMB sending celebration hosted at Spotswood Baptist Church in Fredericksburg, VA. IMB Photo
Meador, the former Lola Elaine Grisham, was born in Lubbock, Texas, and considered Albuquerque, New Mexico, her hometown. She received the Bachelor of Arts from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, and attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
Before her missionary appointment, Meador worked as an accounting clerk at Baptist Book Store in Kansas City, Missouri, and for the telephone company in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Denver, Colorado, and Phoenix, Arizona.
Clyde, Meador’s husband of 60 years, died in 2024 and she is survived by two grown children, four grandchildren, four great grandchildren and three step grandchildren.