Portrait of Linda Barron. IMB Photo
Linda Ann Barron, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in Ghana and the Azores Islands, died Aug. 7, 2024, in Hudson Oaks, Texas. She was 85.
Linda was born Nov. 23, 1938, in Greensboro, North Carolina, to the late John Ayers Rierson and Mozelle Fox Rierson. She graduated from Warwick High School in Newport News, Virginia, and attended Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
Linda came to faith at the age of 9. While seeking missionary appointment, she remembered her growing awareness of international missions started with the Girls in Action program at church. During her junior year she met James “Jim” Barron. They married on July 14, 1956, the summer Linda graduated from high school. After Jim finished college, their family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, where James attended seminary while pastoring a church in Bardstown. Linda worked as a medical secretary and business manager.
After a conversation with missionaries from Indonesia, Linda enrolled in seminary two nights a week to prepare for international mission work. While seeking missionary appointment Linda wrote, “Through association with missionary friends and through WMU work, and more thorough study of Scriptures, the appeal for mission work was becoming stronger… It is my hope that I can share Christ with those who know him not and help them grow in Christian grace.”
In 1968, the IMB appointed James and Linda missionaries to Ghana, where they served as church planters and house parents for missionary kids. They later served in the Azores Islands off the coast of Portugal. James and Linda served with the IMB for 26 years.
Linda is preceded in death by James, her husband of 65 years; and a daughter, Carole Sue Barron.
She is survived by two children, Angela (Bruce) Hennington; Stephen (Bernie) Barron; and two grandchildren.
A funeral service was held Aug. 24 at Church at The Crossing in Aledo, Texas.
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.