Dorothy Bernice “Bea” Cromer, a former missionary and Baptist Standard employee, died Aug. 12 in Murfreesboro, Tenn. She was 96. She was born Oct. 17, 1926, in Underwood, Ind. She met her husband of 76 years, Ted Cromer, at church in Muskogee, Okla., and they married on Christmas Eve 1942. While he served in the U.S. Navy during WWII, she served on the home front in a Rosie the Riveter-type role. After the war, they both graduated from Oklahoma Baptist University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. They served in several small churches before being appointed as Southern Baptist missionaries to Liberia, West Africa, where they served 17 years. After leaving Africa, they continued their ministry in Texas. She worked for the Baptist Standard before retirement to Tennessee, where she was a member of Northside Baptist Church in Murfreesboro. In her later years, she loved to bowl, play cards with her family, and cheer for her favorite team, the Dallas Cowboys. At age 92, Bea received silver and bronze medals in bowling at the National Senior Olympics in Albuquerque, N.M. She was preceded in death by her husband Ted and daughter Tedi. She is survived by her son Dehru and his wife Muezetta, daughter Janis Sauls and her husband Chet, seven grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.
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