June Cooper, 81, of Columbia, who answered a call to full-time missionary service while a young woman at Park Street Baptist Church, Columbia, died March 14, 2010, at her residence.
She served as a missionary in Japan for 34 years through the Foreign (now International) Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.
One of her most important endeavors was heading the team that compiled the Japan Baptist Convention hymnal (“Shinsei Sanbika”), according to Mikako Ehara, director of church music for the Japan Baptist Convention. When a new edition of the hymnal was published in 2003, the hymn “Jesus Calls Us” was dedicated to her with a new tune, “Cooper,” written by Rennie Ohtani.
Born May 31, 1928, in Gastonia, N.C., Cooper graduated from Texas Christian University and Southwestern Seminary.
She was a member of Riverland Hills Baptist Church in Irmo.