Yvonne Keefer Leaves Rich Legacy
By Eva Wilson
February 2010
Yvonne Keefer was remembered for her passion for KU basketball, international travel, but most of all, for her family and missions.
A self-described “missions junkie,” Keefer died on Sunday, Jan. 3, after losing her battle with cancer.
She was executive director of Kansas-Nebraska Woman’s Missionary Union from 1982 to late May 2003.
Earlier, she served in Southern Baptist campus ministry. She was campus minister at Washburn University, Topeka, Kan., in 1967 and 1968. After that, she led the Southern Baptist ministry at the University of Kansas in Lawrence from 1969 through 1982.
She briefly served as Minister of Education at First Southern Baptist Church in Lawrence in 1969.
Even before she joined the KNCSB staff in 1982, Keefer helped lead the convention to a new level of missions involvement. She served as one of three team leaders for Mission 1980, a student team that served in the African nations of Malawi and Zambia.
Serving as team leaders with her were Brett Yohn, Southern Baptist campus minister at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, and Bob Anderson, campus minister at Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kan.
Mission 1980 grew into KNCSB’s international mission partnership with Malawi and Zambia. This was KNCSB’s first international partnership. It also was the first such partnership for a new-work convention in the Southern Baptist Convention.
Keefer assumed the leadership of Kansas-Nebraska WMU in 1982 after Viola Webb retired.
“She was able to bridge from a historic WMU to a broader base of women’s ministry,” said R. Rex “Peck” Lindsay. Lindsay stepped down on Dec. 31 after serving as KNCSB executive director since 1977.
Keefer retired from KNCSB on May 21, 2003, about two months after the war in Iraq began. She was honored during the 2003 KNCSB annual meeting that was held Oct. 13-14 at Western Hills Baptist Church in Topeka.
Her last project at KNCSB was leading the Iraqi Food Box project sponsored by the International Mission Board. The IMB provided a list and asked Southern Baptists to fill boxes with 70 pounds of food.
This produced an overwhelming response in Nebraska and Kansas. Southern Baptists opened their hearts and their wallets and gave money for KNCSB to fill 340 boxes. In addition, churches provided 40 boxes.
“The Bible teaches that true love is love put into action,” Keefer said after the project was completed. “Kansas-Nebraska Southern Baptists have shown that kind of love in their response to the needs of the Iraqi people.”
In other ministries, Keefer served in the 1970s and 1980s as a police chaplain for the Lawrence Police Department. She also served on numerous national boards of the Woman’s Missionary Union of Southern Baptists.
She married Jim Keefer on June 8, 1955, in Oklahoma City, Okla. He survives of the home. She and her husband lived part time in Westcliffe, Colo., where she served as a road commissioner in Tanglewood Acres, an incorporated community.
Other survivors include two sons, Steve Keefer of Las Animas, Colo., and Brian Keefer of Tampa, Fla., a sister, Jean Denton of Oklahoma City, Okla., and four grandchildren.
The family suggests memorials in her name be sent to:
- First Southern Baptist Church, 4300 W. 6th St, Lawrence, KS 66049
- The building fund of First Baptist Church, PO Box 296 Westcliffe, CO 81252
- Or the Webster Conference Center Elevator Fund. Make checks out to Webster Conference Center, designate them for “Elevator Fund,” and mail them to KNCSB, 5410 SW 7th St., Topeka, KS 66606. Attn: Heidi.
Warren-McElwain Mortuary in Lawrence was in charge of arrangements.
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