Juanita Garrison, who dispensed wit and farm-fresh wisdom for 15 years as the “Sunday Dinner” columnist for The Baptist Courier, died Sept. 5, 2019.

Her column featured recipes submitted by Courier readers as well as favorite dishes from her own kitchen. “Sunday Dinner” ran in The Courier from 2002-2018, and in 2016 Courier Publishing released “Sunday Best: Favorite Recipes from Sunday Dinner with Juanita Garrison,” a cookbook containing a collection of her “Sunday Dinner” recipes.

“Juanita was a popular writer for us and had quite a large following,” said Courier editor Rudy Gray. “Her Christian faith was always on display in her life and through her writing.”

In addition to culinary advice, Garrison often used her space to talk about the importance of being a good host. She once wrote: “The things your guests will remember will be your hospitality, the good food (whatever it is and however it is served), and your friendship and love — not if the curtains have been recently laundered. Be generous and hospitable. The Bible says so.”

Garrison, 86, of Denver Downs Farm in Anderson, was the wife of the late former state senator T. Ed Garrison. She was a longtime member of Welcome Baptist Church, located within sight of her front porch.

A Georgia native, she graduated from the University of Georgia in 1953 with a degree in journalism. She worked for newspapers in Georgia and South Carolina. Over the years, she taught school in Anderson school districts 4 and 5, taught journalism at Anderson College, and taught adults with the vocational rehabilitation program.

For a few years, she wrote a monthly gardening column for the Greenville News, and for many years wrote a weekly gardening column appearing in several area papers. In the 1990s, she began a semi-monthly column, “My Country Garden,” in the Anderson Independent-Mail.

She was author of the Welcome Baptist Church History, the Arrowood Family History, an etiquette book and several cookbooks. She was active in many church and civic organizations, and she taught Sunday school off and on for more than 50 years. She was named Clemson University Mother of the Year in 1996 and was awarded the Order of the Silver Crescent in 2018.

Survivors include five children, nine grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by a son in 1990 and a grandson in 2007.

Garrison’s “Sunday Dinner” columns are archived and accessible at BaptistCourier.com, and her “Sunday Best” cookbook is available at CourierPublishing.com.