Portrait of Jane Parker. IMB Photo
Jane Parker, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Guatemala, died Nov. 4, 2025. She was 95.
Jane was born April 14, 1930, in Selma, Alabama, to the late Robert Milton Averitt and Floy Gary Averitt. She graduated from Jackson County High School in Marianna, Florida, and received the Bachelor of Arts from Judson College, Marion, Alabama, and the Master of Religious Education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas.
After college, she taught high school in Alabama for one year. In September 1952, she entered Southwestern seminary and worked at Doyle Mission, located in an underprivileged section of Fort Worth. Here she became close friends with Wendall Parker, the pastor of the mission. Following graduation from seminary, she worked as an assistant in the Woman’s Missionary Union in Arkansas and then accepted the position as WMU youth secretary for Missouri Baptists. On Dec. 28, 1955, Jane married Wendall Parker. In 1957, Jane and Wendall were appointed home missionaries to serve in the Panama Canal Zone. Later, they attended Spanish language school and returned to serve with the Panamanians until 1967.
While seeking international missionary appointment, Jane wrote, “There are two outstanding experiences relating to my call to missions which happened while I was a girl. One night while I was attending an associational Training Union encampment at Coden, Alabama, the missionary message touched my heart deeply and I responded by giving the missionary all the money I had saved so that she could ‘tell the people of China about Jesus.’ Later, I attended the WMU quarterly meeting and when the visiting missionary speaker gave an invitation, I responded, feeling God was calling me to serve Him as a missionary.”
In 1967, the International Mission Board appointed Wendall and Jane missionaries to Guatemala where they served for almost 30 years.
Jane was preceded in death by her husband of 60 years, Wendall Carter Parker.
She is survived by her daughter LeAnne Riggsbee (Gray) of Haw River, North Carolina; four grandchildren and eight great grandchildren; several nieces and nephews; and her Guatemala Baptist Mission Family.
A funeral service was held Nov. 22 at Harmony Baptist Church in Baldwin, Georgia, with burial in the church cemetery.
Donations in her memory may be made to the Lottie Moon Offering, IMB, 3806 Monument Avenue, Richmond, VA 23230, or online at Generosity Resource Center – IMB Generosity.
Read an obituary here.