Portrait of Joyce Wyatt. IMB Photo
Joyce Wyatt, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Colombia, Chile and Spain, died April 24, 2025. She was 97.
Joyce was born May 13, 1927, in Rogersville, Tennessee, to the late E.A. and Birdie Mae Cope. She graduated from Rogersville High School and received the Bachelor of Arts from Lincoln Memorial University, Harrogate, Tennessee.
While seeking missionary appointment she stated, “At 16, I felt the Lord was calling me to go into foreign mission work and I dedicated myself to that task. I was at that time a freshman in college, and I was very active in the religious activities on campus. I was never deterred from my aim but continued with my plans to be appointed as a missionary to Japan when I was 24.”
After graduation from college in 1947, she went to Knoxville, Tennessee, where she taught history for one year, before entering the Woman’s Missionary Union Training School in Louisville, Kentucky. During this time, she met Roy Wyatt. They were married on June 27, 1950. Roy served as a pastor, but “more and more we began to realize that the Lord wanted us to serve Him on the mission field.”
Joyce eventually received three master’s degrees from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville.
While seeking appointment she stated, “It has been twelve years since I accepted Christ and nine years since I gave my life to Him to be a missionary. He has been the great guiding force of my life, and I have earnestly tried to put His teachings into practice in my life, every day and in every situation. I have had many blessed experiences that have led me on toward finding Jesus to be the Lord of my life.”
In 1953, the International Mission Board appointed Roy and Joyce missionaries to Spain. They later also served in Chile and Colombia.
Joyce was preceded in death by her husband of 59 years, Dr. Roy Blanton Wyatt; her daughter, Kathryn Mee, her son, Rev. Dr. Michael Wyatt, and her son-in-law, Ralph Christinck.
She is survived by her daughter, Debbi Wyatt Christinck, son-in-law David Mee (Bonnie), ten grandchildren and 20 great grandchildren.
A funeral service was held April 29 at Central Baptist Church of Bearden in Knoxville, Tennessee, with burial in Highland Cemetery, Rogersville.
Read an obituary here.