Betty Marshall Bedenbaugh, 79, of Greenville, a retired Southern Baptist missionary, died June 11, 2009.
Betty BedenbaughBorn Feb. 27, 1930, in Mt. Vernon, Ill., she attended Furman University and was a graduate of Mississippi College. She and her husband, Charles, were retired Southern Baptist missionaries to Tanzania, East Africa, for more than 31 years.
In the early years of their overseas work, the Bedenbaughs worked with young people in Tanganyika (later Tanzania) and converted their home into a youth center. Charles taught at a Baptist seminary, and Betty taught home economics, hygiene, health and first-aid to wives of seminary students. In later years the Bedenbaughs worked in rural areas of East Africa developing churches.
While on periodic furloughs in the United States, the Bedenbaughs lived in church-sponsored missionary homes in South Carolina. In the latter part of their career, they spent their furloughs in the missionary home of Earle Street Baptist Church in Greenville. When her husband died of cancer in 1991, Betty retired and settled in the Earle Street missionary house, where she lived until a few weeks before her death.
She was an active member of Earle Street, the church choir and handbell choir, WMU, the Sunday school department and the XYZ Senior Citizens group. She was also a member of the Greenville Lions Club.
Survivors include three sons, 14 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. She was predeceased by her husband and a 6-year-old daughter, Lynette, who died in an accident in Tanzania in 1971.