Portrait of Betty Jo Hensley. IMB Photo
Betty Jo Hensley, an International Mission Board missionary emeritus who shared the gospel in the Bahamas, Panama, Costa Rica, Barbados and Mexico, died Dec. 10, 2024, in Jacksonville, North Carolina. She was 90.
Betty Jo was born Oct. 15, 1934, in Greenville, North Carolina, to the late Johnny Carroll and Daisy Carroll. She graduated from Chicod School and received the Bachelor of Science from East Carolina College (now East Carolina University), both in Greenville.
Betty Jo came to faith in Christ as a child during a Vacation Bible School held at a local Presbyterian church she attended with her aunt. Starting her eighth-grade year, she attended a local Baptist church with her mother. During a revival meeting there, she publicly accepted Christ as her Savior and was baptized in a creek. Growing up, she had several Christian teachers, including a Presbyterian home missionary whose influence first caused her to consider home missions. Ultimately, she felt led to become a teacher.
After graduation from college, she accepted a teaching position in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she joined a local church. There she met Bob Hensley, a ministerial student at Wake Forest. They were married in June 1958. Betty Jo continued to teach while Bob finished seminary. During this time, they began to hear more and more about the need for foreign missionaries. They also had opportunity to meet and hear from missionaries themselves. While seeking missionary appointment Betty Jo wrote, “At no specific time, but very gradually, both of us began to feel that God could use us somewhere other than in the United States.” Their sense of call to foreign missions continued to grow after Bob’s graduation from seminary.
In 1963, the International Mission Board appointed Bob and Betty Jo missionaries to Costa Rica. They would go on to serve in the Bahamas, Panama, Barbados and Mexico over the next four decades.
Betty Jo was preceded in death by Bob, her husband of almost 50 years.
She is survived by her sons, Robert Carroll Hensley Jr. (Brenda), and Joseph Edward Hensley; two granddaughters; and two great-grandsons.
A graveside service was held Dec. 17 at Onslow Memorial Park in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
Read an obituary here.