Portrait of Susan Ware. IMB Photo
Susan Ware, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Costa Rica, Mexico and Colombia, died Feb. 18, 2026, in Monroe, Louisiana. She was 95.
Susan was born Feb. 17, 1931, in Minden, Louisiana, to the late Tom Monroe Goodwin and Cora Mae Goodwin. She graduated from Athens (Louisiana) High School, received the Bachelor of Science from Louisiana College, Pineville, and attended New Orleans (Louisiana) Baptist Theological Seminary. She later received the Master of Education and the Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Louisiana at Monroe.
Susan entered Louisiana College to prepare to meet the qualifications of a missionary nurse. At the beginning of college, she met James Cullen Ware. They were married on Aug. 9, 1952, after graduation. They spent the next three years at seminary in New Orleans. During this time, Susan also worked as a nurse at Southern Baptist Hospital. In the fall of 1956, James became a graduate student at the University of Minnesota, and Susan continued her work as a nurse in Minneapolis. She also worked as a nurse in the obstetrical department of Baptist Memorial Hospital of Memphis, Tennessee, while James completed his residency.
While seeking missionary appointment, Susan wrote, “From birth God surely had a purpose for my life, and this I have seen unfold day by day. I am convinced through faith and prayer that God has nurtured my life and prepared me for foreign missions.”
In 1958, the International Mission Board appointed James and Susan missionaries to Mexico. After studying language in Costa Rica, they moved to Mexico, where Susan served as a nurse. Later, they also served in Colombia.
Susan was preceded in death by her husband, James Cullen Ware, and her son-in-law, Raul Villafranco.
She is survived by her children, Ruth Anne Rosenow (Alvin), Mary Ellen Carrell (Ron), James Thomas Ware (Mary Alice), and Rebecca Lynn Villafranco; and several grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren.
A funeral service was held Feb. 21 in the chapel of Mulhearn Funeral Home in Monroe, with burial in Roselawn Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Calhoun.
Read an obituary here.