Samuel Raymond Joseph Cannata, longtime Southern Baptist medical missionary, died Jan. 4. He was 88. He was born in Houston Nov. 4, 1928. He graduated from Baylor University in 1949 with a pre-med degree and completed his M.D. program at the University of Texas in 1957. That same year, he married Virginia Currey in June, and they were appointed in December by the Foreign Mission Board to Zimbabwe, where he worked in the Baptist Hospital as one of two doctors. The Cannatas served as missionaries in Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Kenya, Southern Sudan and on the island of Zanzibar. While in rural Ethiopia, the family was arrested and taken to the capital, Addis Ababa. Cannata’s wife and children were released, but he was detained two weeks and accused of being a CIA agent. The Cannatas wrote a book, Truth on Trial, about their experience. They retired from missionary service in 1993, and he worked as a doctor in Texas seven years. They returned to Kenya as volunteers in 2001. After leaving Kenya, they lived in Waco six years. They moved to Shawnee, Okla., in 2007, where they joined Immanuel Baptist Church. In 2016, they moved to Oklahoma City to live at the Baptist Retirement Village. He was preceded in death by his son, Stanlee Cannata, who died in Ethiopia at age 27. He is survived by his wife, Ginny; son, Mike Cannata; daughter, Cathy Buchanan; six grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and a brother, Don Cannata.
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