Juanita Pate, 93, of Charleston, Missouri, passed away 4 April 2022. She was a missionary to South Africa for 38 years.

She was born in Sikeston, Missouri, on 12 February 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, Illinois, for two years and then completed nurses' training at the Missouri Baptist Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. 

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 a Bachelor of Arts degree in nursing. Returning to St. Louis, she worked for a year at Missouri Baptist Hospital and then left for South Africa in August 1955.

In South Africa, she spent 11 years at Tintswalo Hospital, where she worked in the wards and also taught nursing. In 1957, she became a midwife at Grey's Hospital in Pietermaritzburg. In 1968 she was transferred to Lorraine Clinic at Trichartsdal, followed by her transfer in 1970 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, and 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 back to Bourbonnais, where she worked as an administrative assistant in hospice care. In 2009, she returned to her hometown of Charleston, where she was a member of the Community Church of the Nazarene in Sikeston. She was also involved in the Wednesday morning women’s Bible study at the United Methodist Church in Charleston.

Preceding her in death were her parents, Leslie and Lottie Pate. 

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