BLACK MOUNTAIN, N.C. (BP)–Dorothy “Dot” Pettit, a former Southern Baptist missionary, was killed Sept. 10 in Black Mountain, N.C., when a train at a railroad crossing struck the car she was driving.
Pettit, 86, of El Paso, Texas, and her husband Max were attending a reunion for emeritus missionaries at the LifeWay Ridgecrest Baptist Conference Center near Black Mountain. When the accident occurred, the Pettits were returning to their hotel after evening activities with some emeriti from the International Mission Board’s Middle America and Caribbean region.
Pettit and her first husband, the late Marlin Hicks, were appointed as missionaries in 1950 and served in the board’s western South America region until his death in 1957. She transferred to the Middle America and Caribbean region and began serving at the Baptist Spanish Publishing House in El Paso in 1958. Her missionary service continued until 1968.
She married Max Pettit, a former Southern Baptist missionary who had served in East Asia, in 1968. The two of them worked at the publishing house until their retirement in 1985.
About 1,000 emeritus missionaries gathered at Ridgecrest to attend the reunion, which is held every five years. Details of the accident have not been released by the Black Mountain Police Department, pending completion of their investigation.
Born Nov. 8, 1920, in Mississippi, Pettit considered El Paso her hometown. Funeral arrangements are pending.
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Mark Kelly is a freelance writer based in Gallatin, Tenn.
