Portrait of Hazel Barron. IMB Photo

Hazel Barron, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Southeast Asia and South Asia, died March 11, 2026, in Pleasant Hill, Tennessee. She was 89. 

Hazel was born Jan. 21, 1937, in Richton, Mississippi, to the late Davis Clark and Mertis Clark. She graduated from Richton High School and attended Twentieth Century Business College, Mobile, Alabama.  

Upon graduation from high school, Hazel moved to Mobile, where she worked in a jewelry store while taking stenographic training in night school. After completing the course, she entered civil service and began work as a secretary at Brookley Air Force base in Mobile. On Nov. 29, 1958, she married Tom Barron. They moved to Lawton, Oklahoma, where Tom was stationed in the Army, and she worked as a church clerk and obtained a position at the Army post until the fall of 1959. In 1960, they moved to Collins, Mississippi, when Tom was called as pastor of Williamsburg Baptist Church. During this time, Hazel worked full time at the Hattiesburg Social Security Office. In 1962, Tom was called to West Side Baptist Mission in Picayune, Mississippi, where they served for three years. In 1965, they moved to Covington, Tennessee, and Tom became pastor of Mount Lebanon Baptist Church. 

While seeking missionary appointment Hazel wrote, “Throughout our ministry at Mount Lebanon … we have sought a definite leading as to the specific field of service in which God could best use us. Since Foreign Missions Week at Glorieta in 1959, I have felt that the greatest need for churches exists where there are none and no opportunity for people to hear that God loves them.” 

In 1967, the International Mission Board appointed Tom and Hazel missionaries to Southeast Asia. They also served in South Asia. They retired from missionary service after 34 years. 

Hazel was preceded in death by her husband of 66 years, Thomas Olon Barron.  

She is survived by her son, Tom Barron Jr., and her daughter, Rebecca Taylor.  

A funeral service was held March 13 at Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Pleasant Hill, Tennessee, with burial in Old Pleasant Hill Cemetery.  

Read an obituary here.