Jean Lumeree spent her life in consistent prayer and faithful ministry. This legacy has had a trickle-down effect throughout her family, which God has used to produce generations of faithfulness.
Jean Elizabeth Lumeree was born on April 14, 1919, and entered heaven on November 28, 2022, at the age of 103. When she was a young girl of only 6 or 7 years old, her family attended a Billy Sunday evangelistic meeting held in a large wooden tabernacle with sawdust aisles in Binghamton, New York. She realized that Jesus’ death on the cross was payment for her sins, and she placed her faith in Him as her personal Savior. This was only the beginning of a life characterized by prayer, love and faithfulness.
Lumeree enrolled at Baptist Bible Seminary in Johnson City, New York, and graduated in 1939. After graduation, she married Don Lumeree (’38) on July 20, 1939, at the Milford Center Baptist Church. She prioritized ministry in her home, which God may have used to encourage many of her descendants into career ministry today.
Her daughter, Deborah Hindal, said, “[my parents] loved BBS and they instilled in their daughters that they should go to Bible school to prepare for a life of service.”
She continued, saying, “that same passion for Christian education flowed into the successive generations.” The list of ministry workers in their family is long and includes a daughter and her husband who served in full-time ministry at the same church for 35 years. That same son-in-law also served as the international director for GARBC for 14 years. Two grandchildren are active in full-time missionary work; three grandchildren are working for a gospel ministry based in Haiti, and three great-grandchildren are in full-time youth ministry. God has called others to serve Christ in ministry in various other fields and careers.
Over the years the Lumerees served in many ministries. In January 1940 they went to the Upstate Baptist Home where he served as a general helper and she served as a cook. In 1946, he accepted his first pastorate at the Memphis Baptist Church in Memphis, New York, and he later became the first pastor of the Liverpool Baptist church in Liverpool, New York, in 1952. They then accepted the call to Worthington Baptist Church in Worthington, Pennsylvania, in 1961. They served in Worthington until his retirement in 1980. For all those years, she served faithfully alongside her husband. Following his death, she moved to Maranatha Retirement Village in Sebring, Florida.
According to Hindal, Lumeree’s “greatest influence was her prayer life for her family by name.” She continued, saying, “she had a prayer journal with a page for each descendant along with their picture and requests that she faithfully prayed for each day.”
Lumeree modeled love and care to her children as she lived a life of devotion to her husband and her ministries. She was a caretaker and cook who mixed love into all aspects of her life.
“Perhaps unknowingly, she mentored her daughters in loving and caring for people. She and [my father] prayed for their members, visited them in the hospital and in their homes, hosted countless missionaries and youth groups and class parties, taught children and ladies Sunday School classes, directed VBS and sang in and conducted the church choir,” Hindal said.
Lumeree learned to play the trumpet at age 10 and played in church until she was 87. She used her sewing skills to make a quilt for each of her grandchildren, and she crafted Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls for most of her great-grandchildren. She loved to sew, knit and crochet and helped the ladies of her church with projects for missionaries.
Above all, Lumeree was passionate for God’s Word and prayer. At her memorial service, grandchildren commented that when they visited her, they saw her each morning with her Bible.
Jenna Hanna, one of Lumeree’s great-granddaughters, said, “my great-grandma Jean was the most wonderful blend of love, spunk and faithfulness. Even when we visited her at over 100 years old, I walked past her room and saw her asleep with her Bible open. I also admired how Heaven was so real to her; she would tell everyone about how much she was looking forward to being there. When we heard she had passed away, we couldn’t help but smile even through our sadness to hear that she was finally with her Lord where she longed to be.”
Hindal said, “we were blessed to have such a mother and woman of prayer.”
The legacy of Don and Jean Lumeree has led to nearly 50 family members who have attended Clarks Summit University over the last 85 years, including married surnames of Bartos, Blair, Briggs, Butler, Demerly, Engle, Hanna, Hart, Hatfield, Henzler, Hindal, McIntyre, Mitchell, Scouten, Sisco and Sparkes.
Lumeree’s family members, listed with their CSU graduation year and other connection points with CSU
- JEAN LUMEREE: 1939
- Don Lumeree: husband, 1938
- Donna Lumeree McIntyre: daughter, 1962
- Virginia Hall Mitchell: sister, 1934
- Ralph Mitchell: brother-in-law, served on the CSU Board of Trustees
- Barb Engle: niece, taught in CSU’s Department of Music
- Richard Engle: nephew, 1985, Baptist Bible Seminary professor
- Richard Engle: grandnephew, 1985
- Cherie Engle: grandniece, 1986
- Emily Engle: great-grand niece, 2011
- Jonathan Engle: great-grand nephew, 2014
- Katie Engle Sparkes: great-grand niece, 2016
- Abby Engle: great-grand niece, 2019
- Diane Engle Henzler: grand niece, 1985
- Mark Henzler: grand nephew, 1990, 2002
- Suzanna Henzler Bartos: great-grand niece, 2014
- Andrew Henzler: great-grand nephew, 2016
- John Mitchell: nephew, 1997, Christian Service Director for seven years
- Jackie Weeks Mitchell: niece, 1974, 1976
- Brian Mitchell: grand nephew, 2000
- Kim Mitchell: grand niece, 2003
- Stephanie Mitchell Hatfield: grand niece, 2007
- Andrew Hatfield: grand nephew, 2002
- Emily Mitchell: grand niece, 2003, 2007
- Gary Briggs: nephew
- Grace Briggs: niece, 1964
- Michael Briggs: grand nephew, 1987, 1991
- Amy Briggs: grand niece, 1992
- Michelle Briggs Blair: great-grand niece, 1988
- Tom Blair: great-grandnephew, 1985
- Melissa Briggs Butler: great-grand niece, 2002
- Jim Butler: great-grand nephew, 1992
- Charlie Sisco: nephew, 1969
- Sandy Thomas Sisco: niece, 1969
- Chris Hindal: son-in-law, 1971, 1983
- Deborah Lumeree Hindal: daughter, 1971
- Jeff Demerly: grandson, 1992, 1996
- Adam Scouten: grandson, 2004
- Andrew Hindal: grandson, 2010
- Rebecca Hindal Scouten: granddaughter, 2002
- Jodi Hindal Demerly: granddaughter, 1995
- Trisha Nunaley Hindal: granddaughter, 2001
- Jenna Demerly Hanna: great-granddaughter, 2018
- Caleb Hanna: great-grandson, 2017
- Jared Demerly: great-grandson, 2021
- Jaden Demerly: great grandson, current CSU student
- Jilynn Demerly: great-granddaughter, prospective CSU student
by Jessica Abbiati (’19)
