Cope, Betty

Betty Cope, wife of Cleburne Baptist Association Director of Missions Padgett Cope and a member of Heflin Baptist Church, died June 5. She was 76.

The Copes have served in Cleburne Association since 2001. Before that they served in various other associations and churches across the state, as well as in churches in other states. The Copes, married for 58 years, were in ministry together for more than 45 years.

They were appointed by the then-Home Mission Board (now North American Mission Board) to serve as missionaries in 1959, and their first posting was in Philadelphia.

The church they started there grew from five families to 66 members in a year.

An active member of the Samford University Auxiliary, Cope served as auxiliary president from 1982 until 1984 and was a program chair and vice president prior to that.

Cope also attended Howard College (now Samford University) and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.

Cope taught women’s Sunday School classes throughout her years in ministry. She also was active in the Woman’s Missionary Union throughout her ministry in each new church the couple planted and in each church they served.

In addition to her husband of 58 years, Cope is survived by four children, 15 grandchildren and two-grand-children. Two of their children have served as International Mission Board missionaries.

(TAB)