Former national WMU president Gregory dies at 89

BIRMINGHAM — Christine Gregory, national Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU) president from 1975 to 1981, died Jan. 22, in Danville, Va. She was 89.

She served on the 1980s Southern Baptist Peace Committee that studied the controversy between conservatives and moderates. She also served as vice president of the Baptist World Alliance and as first vice president of the SBC.

At age 38 with three young sons, she became WMU president of First Baptist Church, Danville. In 1961, she became associational WMU director, and in 1968, she served as missions action chairman for Virginia. She was elected as president of Virginia WMU (1971–1975).

Gregory was elected as president of national WMU and served from 1975–1981.

After she retired, she was elected as first vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), the first woman to hold that particular office, and the third woman ever to hold a convention office, according to WMU. In 1982, she was nominated to Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary’s board of trustees in Wake Forest, N.C., and also became adviser to Averett College in Danville. The school awarded her an honorary doctorate in 1976.

From 1981–1983, she served on the SBC Annuity Board to help study its church pension plan. She described her service on this committee as a “most significant” opportunity because the board was able to provide secretarial and janitorial workers in churches with fair pensions. Also in 1983, she was awarded another honorary doctorate, but this time by the University of Richmond.