JUANITA LEE PATE, age 93, a resident of Charleston, died Monday, April 4, 2022, at the Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau.

Born in Sikeston on February 12, 1929, to Leslie and Lottie Polston Pate, she grew up in Charleston and graduated from Charleston High School in 1946. She attended Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, IL for two years then completed nurses training at the Missouri Baptist Hospital in St. Louis., She was employed at the Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston for a short time before enrolling in Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho where she obtained an AB degree in Nursing. Returning to St. Louis, she worked for a year at Missouri Baptist Hospital then left for South Africa in August 1955.

In Africa, she spent 11 years at Tintswalo Hospital where she worked in the wards and also taught nursing. In 1957 she went for Midwifery at Grey's Hospital in Pietemaritzburg. In 1968 was transferred to Lorraine Clinic at Trichartsdal and in 1970 transferred to the Blouberg Hospital in the North Transvaal. When the Government took over medical work in 1980, she was transferred to Church Auxiliaries where she helped train national leaders in Youth, Sunday School & Missionary work. Later, she was enlisted by the Government for service at the clinic in Letaba. When her time of service at the clinic in Letaba was completed, she was sent to the Bible College where she remained until retirement in 1993.

Upon her retirement from Missionary work in South Africa, she moved to Bourbonnais, IL where she worked as Administrative Assistant for Hospice.  In 2009, she returned to her hometown of Charleston where she was a member of the Community Church of the Nazarene in Sikeston and a member of the Wednesday morning Women's Bible Study at the United Methodist Church in Charleston.

She is survived by Janie Semlar of Charleston and cousins, nieces and nephews.

Preceding her in death were her parents, and members of her second family; Charles and Cordia Farmer, Louise Farmer, Buck and Juel Farmer, Dorothy and Richard Reed, Lois and Lindsay Hurley, Martha and Harry Keener, and Rick Reed.

Visitation will be held at the McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston on Friday, April 8, 2022, from 9:30 a.m. until the funeral hour at 11:00 a.m. Rev. Jerry Frye, pastor of the Church of the Nazarene in Eldon, and Rev. Richard Stout, pastor of the Community Church of the Nazarene in Sikeston will officiate.

Interment will follow in the IOOF Cemetery under the direction of McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston.

Pallbearers will be Chuck Farmer, Bruce Farmer, John Keener, Paul Keener, Mike McIlroy, and Matthew Morrow.

Memorial contributions may be given to the Christian Literature for Africa, P.O. Box 5524, Fort Wayne, IN 46895