James Teel Jr.

James Oscar Teel, Jr. passed away peacefully on February 9 at 11 a.m., while listening to his favorite hymns.

A funeral service will take place on Wednesday. February 23, 2022 at 11 am at Elmwood Funeral Home in Abilene, Texas. The service will be preceded by Visitation at 10 am. Internment will follow immediately after.

James was born December 9th (some say it was really the 10th), 1927, in Electra, Texas. He graduated from Electra High School, and then moved to Abilene to attend Hardin-Simmons University. He paid his own tuition and expenses by working as an orderly at Hendrick Hospital.

In January 1949, he married his sweetheart and fellow HSU student Georgie Lee Williams. They both graduated from HSU and moved to Fort Worth to pursue their education at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. James pastored churches in Texas and Oklahoma during this time, and also worked as a draftsman at the General Dynamics Corporation.

In 1956 James and Georgie were appointed missionaries with the (then called) Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. They served together as missionaries for a total of 27 years, first in Ecuador and Argentina, where he was involved in church-building, including as pastor of Villa Martelli church. He also served in radio and television outreach and associational administration.

In 1983 they returned to the field in the Dominican Republic to grow churches, and later moved to Canada, where he helped establish the Canadian Southern Baptist Seminary & College.

Between terms of service as a missionary, he worked at the Baptist General Convention of Texas Cooperative Program, the Stewardship Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and in Hardin-Simmons’ Development Office. He also served as interim pastor in several Abilene area churches. The last 19 years of his working life were spent as a chaplain at Hospice of the Big Country at the West Texas Rehabilitation Center.

Following his retirement, James and Georgie moved to Fort Worth and were active members of Travis Avenue Baptist church and volunteers at its Mercy Clinic.

James Teel will be remembered for his optimism and compassion. He loved doing the Lord’s work and was a published writer, poet and song-writer. He will be remembered by his survivors as a devout husband and sweet and gentle father and mentor to his children.

James is survived by his wife Georgie Lee, four children: Linda Farell and husband Dan; Judy Simon and husband Jerry; Pam Teel and Jim Teel, seven grandchildren, 19 great grandchildren, one sister, Mary Hyink, and two brothers, Oren Teel and Al Teel.  He was preceded in death by a daughter Shirley Ann Teel, who passed away in 1958, and by two sisters, Opal Alexander and Edith Richey, and three brothers, Dewey Teel, W.B. Teel, and Carrol Teel.

In lieu of flowers, a donation may be sent to Baptist Spanish Publishing House Foundation.