Grace Farrar, pioneering medical missionary to Nigeria, dies at 88
LEBANON, Tenn. — Grace Farrar, a medical missionary to the West African nation of Nigeria, died Jan. 11 in an auto accident in Tennessee. She was 88.
Farrar and her husband, Dr. Henry Farrar, were the driving force behind Nigerian Christian Hospital, a church-supported medical mission in southeastern Nigeria.
A native of Indiana, Grace Farrar enlisted in the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps as a registered nurse and later earned a degree in home economics from Harding College in Searcy, Ark. There she met and married Henry Farrar. She put her husband through medical school on her nursing income.
In 1964, the Farrars moved their family to Nigeria and helped launch the hospital. The couple made regular trips there until Henry Farrar’s death in 2010. Grace Farrar also served in Cameroon, Tanzania and China as a nurse and educator.
“My dad … always said that he was saved by Grace — twice,” said Marty Highfield, one of the couple’s six children. “She was one amazing woman in this life, and I cannot imagine how amazing she must be now.”
Read more about the life of Grace Farrar on The Chronicle’s blog page.
Farrar and her husband, Dr. Henry Farrar, were the driving force behind Nigerian Christian Hospital, a church-supported medical mission in southeastern Nigeria.
A native of Indiana, Grace Farrar enlisted in the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps as a registered nurse and later earned a degree in home economics from Harding College in Searcy, Ark. There she met and married Henry Farrar. She put her husband through medical school on her nursing income.
In 1964, the Farrars moved their family to Nigeria and helped launch the hospital. The couple made regular trips there until Henry Farrar’s death in 2010. Grace Farrar also served in Cameroon, Tanzania and China as a nurse and educator.
“My dad … always said that he was saved by Grace — twice,” said Marty Highfield, one of the couple’s six children. “She was one amazing woman in this life, and I cannot imagine how amazing she must be now.”
Read more about the life of Grace Farrar on The Chronicle’s blog page.
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