Portrait of Lauree Moore. IMB Photo

Lauree Agnew Moore, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Tanzania and Kenya, died March 5, 2024. She was 83.

Lauree was born Sept. 7, 1940, in Bennettsville, South Carolina, to Jesse and Marie Agnew. She graduated from Eau Claire High School. Columbia, South Carolina, and received the Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College, Columbia, South Carolina.

Her obituary reported that: “At age 12, Lauree surrendered her life to the call of mission work. She asked the Lord to send her a likeminded spouse, as she felt she wouldn’t be able to go on her own. She met the love of her life at 14 as a freshman at Eau Claire High School. Gene was a handsome, charming junior who had a fondness for chocolate chip cookies. They soon realized that they shared the same faith values and, most importantly, calling to missions. They courted throughout her high school years and into college. They got married in 1959.”

In 1970, the Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) appointed Gene and Lauree missionaries to East Africa. Gene was a surgeon in Tanzania. She served as wife, mother, teacher, hostess and sometimes surgical assistant. The family served in Mbeya to Kigoma. They later worked with Somali refugees in Kenya, Somalia and Djibouti. They retired in 2000.

Lauree is preceded in death by her husband, Gene.

She is survived by her five children: Marie Johnson (Allen), Roland Moore (Karen), Robin Woodhams (Mark), Becka Brazell (Chris), Gena Moore, seventeen grandchildren and twenty-seven great grandchildren.

A funeral service was held March 10, at Elmwood Cemetery in Columbia, South Carolina.

Donations in her memory may be made to the Lottie Moon Offering, IMB, 3806 Monument Avenue, Richmond, VA 23230, or online at Generosity Resource Center – IMB Generosity.

Read an obituary here.