Catherine Raynes

Heights, TX since 2012. She went to rest with our heavenly father on September 15, 2025,

following a brief hospitalization at the Baylor Scott and White Memorial in Temple TX.

Catherine was born on June 1, 1947, in Millsburg, Liberia, to Hillary Mitchell and Williette

Varney. She completed high school at the Suehn Industrial Mission and attended Secretarial

Science training. Catherine began an early career with the Liberian-American-Swedish Mining

Company (LAMCO) in Yekepa, Liberia and was later transferred to Buchanan, Grand Bassa

County, where she was until the Liberia Civil War in 1990. She continued her career as

secretary at the Protestant Methodist Research Center in Danane, Ivory Coast where she

sought refuge with her family. Upon returning to Liberia in 1997, she worked at the Cavalry

Chapel Organization and Samaritan Purse, until 2012 when she moved to the United States to

be with her daughter, Yeye.

She became very impressed during her first visit to the First Baptist Church of Killeen in 2012

and immediately became a member following that visit. She found joy in her prayer group and

faithfully joined in on a weekly basis by telephone. Catherine was a woman of deep faith, and

dedicated her life and service to God. She was known for her warm spirit and gentle heart.

The Bible was her most cherished studied book and her legacy is one of love and peace, which

will live on through all who had the blessing of knowing her.

Catherine is survived by her four children (Wannah, Nathaniel, Kullah, and Yeye), and nine grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband George Raynes, who was a victim of the

tragic Liberian Civil War in June 1990 and her son Aristotle, who passed in March 2018 after a

brief illness.

The family will hold a visitation at 9:30 AM on Saturday, October 11, 2025 at First Baptist Church of Killeen, followed by a celebration of Catherine’s life 10:30 AM. Burial will follow at Garden of Memory Cemetery in Killeen.

Crawford Bowers Funeral Home in Killeen is handling arrangements.