Emma Wilson Strother

Leader in and Student of Mission

Following graduation from Dillard University in New Orleans, Emma Wilson Strother went to work with her mother, Clara J. Wilson, who was one of the superintendents of the National Friendship Home in Cincinnati. Emma later became superintendent of the Mother’s Memorial Center (now Wesley Child Care Center), which was a project of the Woman’s Home Missionary Society (Methodist Episcopal Church).

She held numerous positions in the church, including Central Jurisdiction Secretary of Children’s Work; Delaware Conference vice president, recording secretary and Secretary of Children’s Work; member of the Woman’s Division and chair of its Committee on Missionary Education of Children; member of the Board of Missions’ Inter-Board Committee on Missionary Education, and a vice-president of the National Division.

She traveled with Church Women United to Africa in 1966. In 1979 she was part of the 24-member Asia Travel Team, sponsored by the Women’s Division. In addition, she traveled and studied independently in India. In 1982, the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference recognized her for long and continuous service. She was one of the authors of To a Higher Glory, the Growth and Development of Black Women Organized for Mission in the Methodist Church 1940-1968.

Taken from They Went Out Not Knowing… An Encyclopedia of One Hundred Women in Mission (New York: Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries, The United Methodist Church, 1986). Used with permission of United Methodist Women.

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