Jean Carol Barger Dixon, Bible teacher and partner in ministry to her husband, died Aug. 8. She was 92. She and her twin brother, Jim, were born to William Carson Barger and Mary Viola Barger in Big Springs, Tenn., on April 16, 1928. Her family moved to Chattanooga, Tenn., when she was 10 years old, and there she met her future husband, Robert Dixon, in the fourth grade. They were married on Oct. 23, 1948, after he returned from his service in the U.S. Navy. She attended Carson Newman College. Soon after their two daughters were born, the Dixons sensed God’s calling to a life of ministry. They moved to Fort Worth for training at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. They served four churches before devoting most of their lives to serving Christ through the ministries of Texas Baptist Men. Throughout his years as executive director of TBM, she found great fulfillment supporting and encouraging him as he followed God’s call on his life. She worked and ministered by his side, much of the time content to be in the background. Her house was always one of generous hospitality. She taught English and citizenship lessons to Chinese and Kurdish immigrants, and she opened her home to vulnerable children to provide house parents from children’s homes a respite. She also provided a monthly birthday party for nursing home residents. She found her greatest joy in studying the Bible and teaching its great truths to others. She was preceded in death by her husband, Bob. She is survived by daughter Kathy Treadwell and husband Don; daughter Becky Faulkner and husband A.G; three grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and a twin brother, Jim Barger.

Harley Redin, former coach of the Wayland Baptist Flying Queens, died Aug. 1 in Plainview. He was 100 years old. He was born Aug. 29, 1919, in Silverton to Alvin and Winnie Redin. He earned an associate’s degree from Tarleton Junior College before receiving his undergraduate and master’s degrees from North Texas State University. He served with the U.S. Marines during World War II, flying 38 bombing missions in the South Pacific. As men’s basketball coach at Wayland Baptist College, Redin coached the Pioneers eight years, leading them to a 151-88 record and three appearances in the NAIA National Tournament. He coached the Flying Queens from 1955 to 1973, when they achieved a 437-68 record. Redin used his flying skills as one of the pilots for the Queens, who were transported to out-of-town games in four Beechcraft Bonanzas. Under his guidance, the team won six national AAU titles. Between the Queens and Pioneers, Redin coached more than 40 All-Americans. Redin coached the U.S. women’s basketball team in the 1959 and 1971 Pan American Games to gold and bronze medals, respectively, directed the U.S. team in the 1964 World Championships and coached all-star teams against Russian competition. Redin received the John Bunn Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., in 2018 for meritorious service to the game. He was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in September 2019 as one of the coaches of the Flying Queen teams from 1948-82 that pre-dated the NAIA and NCAA programs. A member of the inaugural class of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tenn., in 1999 and the Wayland Athletics Hall of Honor in 1992, Redin also is a member of the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, the Texas High School Basketball Hall of Fame, the Panhandle Sports Hall of Fame, and the Helms Foundation Hall of Fame. The Atlanta Tipoff Club tapped Redin as the 2000 Naismith Women’s Outstanding Contribution to Basketball Award winner for lifetime achievement, impact on the game and honor and exemplary service. The Amarillo Globe-News named him one of the 100 Sports Legends of the Texas Panhandle, and Sports Illustrated named Redin one of the top people in sports in Texas from 1950 to 2000. Redin joined First Baptist Church in Plainview on Nov. 17, 1946, and was the oldest member of the church at the time of his death. Redin was preceded in death by his first wife Nonie in 1984. He is survived by his wife Wilda; sons Van Redin of Austin and Kenny Redin and wife Cathy of Pflugerville; stepson Mike Hutcherson and his wife Suzy of Lubbock; four grandchildren; and sister Pat Barnhill of San Diego, Calif.

Mable Consuelo Solis of Hewitt, longtime pastor’s wife, died July 6. She was 89. She was born Feb. 17, 1931. After graduating from high school in Fort Worth, she attended Howard Payne University, where she earned an undergraduate degree and met her husband, Raul Solis. She served alongside her husband when he was pastor of churches in O’Brien, Post, Pecos, Hondo, Ozona and Odessa. She took courses toward her education administrative certification from Stephen F. Austin University. She was a bilingual and ESL elementary classroom schoolteacher in the Ector County Public Schools, Waco Independent School District, Bruceville-Eddy Independent School District and Lorena Independent School District. While in Waco, she earned Teacher of the Year recognition at Bell’s Hill Elementary School. Reading instruction was her passion, and she was dedicated to instilling a love for learning in students throughout 45 years as an educator. After she retired from classroom teaching in 2012, she continued to offer after-school reading tutorials to neighborhood children. She loved taking piano lessons, playing in recitals across the Waco area and playing piano for family and friends. She served on the board of the Hewitt Public Library System and as a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity and Meals on Wheels. She was a member of Central Baptist Church in Waco. She was preceded in death by her husband of 36 years, Raul Solis; a son, Joshua Solis of Waco; grandchild Adrian Solis of Odessa; a sister, Jane Nava of Brownwood; and a brother, Edward Reyes of Fort Worth. She is survived by her sons, Raul Solis Jr. of Sunset Valley, Hiram Solis of Axtell and Robert Solis of Brownwood; her daughter, Theresa J. Solis of Euless; nine grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; and her brother Belisario Reyes of Fort Worth.

Adela Galvan Enrriques of Robstown, veteran leader in Union Femenil Misionera and Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas, died July 6. She was 81. She was born on Aug. 14, 1938, in Bishop to Fidel and Casimira Galvan. She and her late husband of 50 years, Abraham Enrriques, served together in ministry throughout his time as a Texas Baptist pastor. Her denominational service included terms as secretary of Union Femenil Misionera, a member of the Texas WMU board and WMU director for Corpus Christi Baptist Association. She was a secretary for the Robstown Independent School District for 31 years, a member of the Robstown ISD Education Foundation and member of the District Educational Improvement Committee. At River Hills Baptist Church in Robstown, she was involved in choir, Vacation Bible School, the hospitality committee and the Amazing Grays senior adult ministry. She also was a board member of the Wesley Community Center in Robstown and was involved in committee service at the Corpus Christi Medical Center. She was preceded in death by her husband Abraham, son Abelardo and daughter Anna. She is survived by three children, Albert, Annette and Amy; seven grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandchild; and a sister, Cruz Vallejo.

William E. “Bill” Thorn, former Texas Baptist pastor and university president, died June 22 in San Angelo. He was 97. He was born Feb. 27, 1923, to Floyd and Irma Thorn in McAlester, Okla. He served as a medic in the U.S. Navy in World War II. As a student at Hardin-Simmons University, Thorn was part of the 1948 Cinderella football team that played in four bowl games in one year. After graduating from Hardin-Simmons, he earned a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Thorn was pastor of several Texas Baptist churches, including First Baptist Church in Panhandle, First Baptist in Bruceville and Calvary Baptist in Lubbock, as well as churches in Merkel and Cisco. He served more than a decade as pastor of Metropolitan Baptist Church in Wichita, Kan., a congregation his father had founded. While there, he was elected president of what was then called the Kansas Convention of Southern Baptists. He was president of Dallas Baptist College from 1975 to 1979, was named president emeritus after the school attained university status, and later served on its board of trustees and its board of development. He served as pastor-in-residence at Baylor University’s Truett Theological Seminary. Thorn was elected vice president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and also served on the BGCT Executive Board, as well as a trustee of Buckner Baptist Benevolences and the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board. A popular public speaker known for his humor, he and his wife Jessie traveled extensively, sometimes making more than 300 appearances a year. He spoke at more than 7,000 engagements in his lifetime, mostly banquets, prompting him to quip that he went years without paying for a meal. Thorn was the author of 23 books. He held four honorary doctorates and received the Texas Baptist Elder Statesman Award. He was named a Distinguished Alumnus of Hardin-Simmons University, was inducted into the HSU Hall of Leaders and served on the HSU board of development. He was preceded in death by his wife of 68 years, Jessie Holder Thorn, in 2015. They had four daughters: Jenny Boyko, Martha Popplewell, Becky Baker and Karen Morris. Survivors include six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Memorial gifts can be made to the W. E. Thorn Endowed Scholarship at DBU.

Donald Lee Cone, Baptist pastor and chaplain, died June 8. He was 85. He was born Oct. 27, 1934, to Charlie and Delia Vire Cone. He graduated from Hardin-Simmons University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was pastor of Broadview Baptist Church in Abilene, Cottage Grove Baptist Church in Houston and Southeast Baptist Church in South Milwaukee, Wisc. He worked 23 years as a prison chaplain at Stateville and Joliet Correctional Centers near Chicago. At age 17, he enlisted in the Texas National Guard and served in the field artillery branch. After seminary, he served as a chaplain in the Texas and Wisconsin National Guard and the U.S. Army Reserve. He retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1989 after 36 years of service. When he retired from prison chaplaincy, he and his wife moved to Flower Mound to be near children and grandchildren, and they became actively involved in the ministries of Lakeland Baptist Church in Lewisville. He volunteered as a Flower Mound police chaplain and was recognized as Chaplain of the Year in 2014. He also volunteered at Christian Community Action in Lewisville, where he ministered both to staff and clients. He also was a volunteer with Bill Glass and Kairos prison ministries. He is best known for his Cross Caps ministry. To encourage others to share their faith publicly, he distributed more than 20,000 custom baseball caps with crosses to anyone he encountered. He is survived by his wife of almost 58 years, Betty Lee Evans Cone of Galena Park; daughter Cindy Cone Jones and her husband Gary of Grapevine; son Steve Cone and his wife Joanna of Frisco; son Michael Cone and his wife Michele of Carrollton; son Dave Cone and his wife Stephanie of The Colony; 11 grandchildren and his younger brother Dale Cone. As a memorial, donations can be made in his honor to Christian Community Action, 200 S. Mill Street, Lewisville, TX 75057 or by going to https://ccahelps.org/donations/generaldonation/.

Roy Aubry Kornegay Jr., Texas Baptist minister of education and associational director of missions, died April 6. He was 82. He was born Aug. 15, 1937, in Shreveport, La., to Roy Aubry Kornegay and Clara Gray Kornegay. He earned his undergraduate degree from Howard Payne College, where he met and married Janette Sewell. He went on to earn a dual master’s degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He served as minister of education at churches in Alvarado, Dumas, Texas City and Pampa before serving at North Phoenix Baptist Church in Phoenix, Ariz. From there, he went to First Baptist Church in Amarillo, where he was minister of education 15 years. He wrote Sunday school curriculum, Vacation Bible School material and missions literature for the Baptist Sunday School Board. He served 17 years as director of missions for Amarillo Baptist Association before he retired in 2004. His denominational service included terms on the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board and the Howard Payne University board of trustees. He served as chair of the SBS Metro Religious Education Association. Locally, he served on the Amarillo Baptist Community Service Board and the High Plains Foundation Board.  He was on the YMCA board of directors and was the 2004 Recipient of the Harry Mays Award. He enjoyed singing with the Panhandle Singing Men of Texas. He began leading tours of the Holy Land in 1974 and set a goal of visiting every place mentioned in the Bible. He later expanded that list, visiting 64 countries. Because of the distinctive hat he wore with a pin from every country he visited, he became widely recognized around the world as “the man in the orange hat.” He is survived by his wife, Janette Kornegay; three daughters and their husbands, Kari and Brian McClure of Coppell, Karla and Brent Weatherly of Amarillo, Kathy and Jon Brooks of Keller; 11 grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. Memorial gifts can be donated in his honor to High Plains Retreat Center, Kornegay Hall Fund, P.O. Box 7709, Amarillo, TX  79114 or online here.

Charlotte Eddings Ware, a longtime Sunday school teacher and deacon at Cliff Temple Baptist Church in Dallas, died June 5 in Fort Worth. She was 85. She was born March 29, 1935, in Houston to John Loyd Eddings and Daisy Drake Eddings. She graduated from Hardin-Simmons University with a degree in chemistry and went to work at the federal scientific installation at Los Alamos, N.M., before beginning graduate studies at Baylor University. At a Baylor Theatre event in February 1957, she met Weston Ware, then a seminary student in Fort Worth. They married six months later. While her husband completed his seminary education, she taught school. In 1958, Convair Aircraft manufacturing company, a predecessor of Lockheed and General Dynamics, named her one of the top five public schoolteachers in Fort Worth. In 1961, the family moved to Hawaii, where her husband served as director of Baptist student ministries. They moved to Dallas in 1964 before moving to Panama in 1966 when her husband became director of the Peace Corps there. Assignments to Puerto Rico and New York followed before returning to Texas in 1974. At each stop along the way, she found a way to teach and share her faith—opening her home to young Peace Corps volunteers in Panama, teaching Sunday school to immigrant workers in Puerto Rico, teaching Vacation Bible School in New York and helping with Vietnamese refugee resettlement in Texas. When the couple returned to Dallas, she taught at Health Special High School, a public school for pregnant teens, where she again was recognized as a top teacher. In addition to her service as a Bible teacher and deacon at Cliff Temple, she also was involved in the church’s social service ministries. In her early 70s, she became an accomplished artist until she began suffering from gradual memory loss. She was a founding board member of the T.B. Maston Foundation. She was preceded in death by an infant daughter, Caroline Brooke Ware. She is survived by her husband of 62 years, Weston; son Cameron and his wife Wendy; daughter Keren Ware Cummins; and five grandchildren. An online memorial service will be hosted by Cliff Temple Baptist Church at 6 p.m. on July 1. To receive a Zoom invitation, click here. Memorial gifts may be made to the T.B. Maston Foundation c/o Royce Rose, treasurer, at 5414 Clover Ct., Fort Worth, TX 76132 or another nonprofit of choice.

James L. Shields, a Texas Baptist educator who taught religion more than three decades at Howard Payne University and Hardin-Simmons University, died June 3 in Abilene. He was 86.  He was born Nov. 10, 1933, in Byers to T.J. “Johnse” Shields and Mildred Gainus Shields. In 1942, the family moved to Phillips, where he graduated from high school in 1951, one year after he surrendered to the ministry and began preaching. As a student at what was then Wayland Baptist College, he met Corrine Cook of Amarillo. They were married in the summer of 1953, and both graduated from Wayland in 1955. The couple moved to Fort Worth, where he began his seminary studies and Corrine taught in the public schools. He earned his Bachelor of Divinity and Doctor of Theology degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. While attending seminary, he served as pastor of Direct Baptist Church in Lamar County and pastor of Floyd Baptist Church in Hunt County. He went to work for the student department of the Baptist General Convention of Texas in 1963 and was assigned to Howard Payne College as director of religious activities. In 1966, he was invited to join the religion faculty at Howard Payne. He accepted the position and continued to serve there until 1984. After resigning from Howard Payne, he accepted a faculty position with Hardin-Simmons and taught there until he retired in 1999. Howard Payne University awarded him the Medal of Service in 1990. He was selected as Cullen Professor of the Year at Hardin-Simmons in 1993 and was recognized as senior professor of theology in 1995. He was elected Faculty Member of the Year by the Hardin-Simmons faculty and staff in 1999. His real joy interacting with students and celebrating their ministry as they followed God’s direction in their lives. Throughout his teaching career and 14 years after retirement, he served churches 63 times as interim pastor, including serving in that role multiple times for some congregations. He also served churches as a supply preacher and Bible study leader, and he led revivals, retreats, conferences and other special services. He was preceded in death by his brother, Bob Shields. He is survived by his wife Corrine; their daughter Cindy DeJulio and her husband Michael; son Jerry Shields and his wife Kay of Colorado City; three grandsons; one granddaughter; and sister Lona Howard of Brownwood. Memorial services will be held at 10 a.m. on June 8 at First Baptist Church in Abilene.

Paula Barry Jeser, who served two decades as executive director of Christian Women’s Job Corps in El Paso, died May 19. She was 72. She was born on Sept. 29, 1947, in Lubbock to Claude and Dana Barry. She and Tom Jeser married Sept. 11, 1976, and they worked side by side to create Jeser Home Realty, where she was office manager. In addition to leading CWJC in El Paso, she was a certified instructor in the job-training and life skills ministry. In that role, she traveled globally and trained women so they could start CWJC programs in their communities. She was elected president of Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas in 2008. She grew up riding horses and passed that passion along to her children and grandchildren. She is survived by her husband of 44 years Thomas Allin Jeser; daughter Cecily Denise Jeser-Cannavale and her husband Jason Drew Cannavale; daughter Jacklyn Michelle Richards and her husband Shaylor Paul Richards; and five grandchildren.

Rebecca (Becky) Lynn Ellison of Waco, Christian Women’s Job Corps/Christian Men’s Job Corps consultant for Woman’s Missionary Union of Texas, died May 16. She was 58. She was born Oct. 28, 1961, in Houston to John T. and Marie Massey. After graduating from Marlin High School, she went to Baylor University, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work. At Baylor, she also met her future husband, Michael Ellison. She began working with CWJC, a job-training and life-skills ministry of WMU, in 2004. Six years ago—four years after she was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer with no approved treatment—she became full-time strategist and consultant for CWJC and CMJC with Texas WMU. In that role, she worked with more than 50 ministry sites around the state. She was preceded in death by her parents and a brother, David Massey. She is survived by her husband of 36 years, Michael; daughter Chelsie Massey and her husband Robert; grandson Robert Massey III; and sister Karen Gonzalez. A memorial service is scheduled at 11 a.m. on June 20 at First Woodway Baptist Church in Waco.

Samuel Eugene Underwood, pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmers Branch more than 29 years, died April 24 at his home in Carrollton after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 68. Underwood was born in San Angelo to Homer Garth and Jessie Simonton Underwood. After graduating from San Angelo Central High School in 1970, he and a group of friends from First Baptist Church in San Angelo attended the University of Texas in Austin together and developed lifelong friendships. Underwood graduated from UT with an undergraduate degree in psychology, earned a Master of Divinity degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and a master’s degree in biblical studies from Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, N.J. He also conducted doctoral work at the University of Dallas, focusing on the early church and early church fathers. He and Ellen Evans of Bowie married in 1986. Underwood was ordained to the ministry at Carter Lake Baptist Church in Bowie, where he was pastor from 1986 to 1991. He was pastor of First Baptist Church in Farmers Branch from 1991 until his death. He was preceded in death by his brother, John Felix. He is survived by his wife, Ellen; son Will Underwood and his wife Veronica of Orlando, Fla.; daughter Pamela Underwood of Seattle, Wash.; daughter Molly Mitchell and her husband Elijah of Waxahachie; and granddaughter Esther. He was looking forward to the birth of another grandchild, due in September. He also is survived by his brothers Doug and Jesse and his sister Pam. Underwood donated his remains to the UT Southwestern Medical School. A celebration of life service is scheduled at 10 a.m. on June 13 at First Baptist Church in Farmers Branch.