Portrait of Evelyn Benfield. IMB Photo

Evelyn Benfield, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Austria, Greece and Denmark, died March 27, 2026. She was 96.  

Evelyn was born July 10, 1929, in Statesville, North Carolina, to the late Jay Love York and Ruby Myrtle Morrow York. She graduated from Celeste Henkel High School in Statesville and attended Draughon Business College, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. 

She married Ray Benfield on June 4, 1950. Three weeks later, the Korean War broke out, and Ray soon joined the U.S. Coast Guard. While seeking missionary appointment Evelyn wrote, “I never wanted to travel, and I had fully intended to live and die in the Statesville area as had my relatives before me. With my husband in port cities all over the country I found myself following him from Cape May, New Jersey, to Groton, Connecticut, to Norfolk, Virginia, to Wilmington, North Carolina.” During this time, Ray told Evelyn he believed God was calling him to preach.  

In 1955, after three years of military service, they moved back to North Carolina, where Ray started college and then went on to seminary. Evelyn obtained a job at a local television station after attending business school. In 1957, Ray became pastor of Peace Haven Baptist Chapel in Winston-Salem.  

Upon seminary graduation in 1962, Ray brought up the possibility of foreign missions and Evelyn recalled that, “I quickly said ‘no.’” However, a few years later, at Ridgecrest in 1969, she agreed to go forward with Ray and explore mission possibilities. Not long afterward, Ray was called to the First Baptist Church in Carthage, North Carolina, where they served for four years. In 1973, they moved again as Ray was called to the Lindley Park Baptist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. During this time, Ray became a trustee of the Foreign Mission Board (now the International Mission Board). After six and a half years, Ray and Evelyn began to sense a united calling to foreign missions. 

Evelyn wrote, “Perhaps it is not a new calling but the same calling to a different place. God has taken me from where I was, a provincial, contented ‘home body,’ and led me step by step to this point where I say without reservation, ‘Here am I, send me.’”  

In 1980, the International Mission Board appointed Ray and Evelyn missionaries to Austria, where they ministered to international students in Salzburg.  They later served in Greece and Denmark.  

Evelyn was preceded in death by her husband of 73 years, Ray Benfield. 

She is survived by her sons, Kamron Benfield (Dana Hiatt) and Kent Benfield (Vera); four grandchildren and one great-grandson.  

A memorial service was held April 12 at Peace Haven Baptist Church in Winston-Salem.  

Read an obituary here.