Alice Price Gaventa

Alice Price Gaventa, 92, of Midlothian, Virginia, died March 10, 2014 after a recent stroke. She is survived by her two sons and their families: William C., Jr. and his wife Beverly, of Waco, Texas and their son Matthew, his wife Sarah, and grandson Charlie of Lovingston, Virginia; and John and his wife Juliet Merrifield, of Keymer, England, and their sons, Jacob, in Colorado, and Jonathan, and daughter Megan, also of England.

Alice Gaventa was the last surviving child of W.K. and Mamie Price of Orlando, Florida. She grew up in Florida, graduated from Florida State University, and also attended one year at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. She married William C. Gaventa in 1945. Together, they were medical missionaries in Nigeria for 27 years in the period between 1949 and 1984 under the Southern Baptist Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) in Richmond. They worked in the small town of Eku, Nigeria and also in the larger city of Ogbomosho. Alice’s primary work as a missionary was working with Baptist Women’s Groups in Nigeria and in leading an educational program for the spouses of seminary students at the Ogbomosho Baptist Seminary.

After returning to the United States for the last time in 1984, Alice and Bill lived in Richmond, Virginia, where he served as the director of the Mission Board’s Medical Services Department until retirement in 1989. Her husband Bill died in 2002. In Richmond, Alice worked as a volunteer at the International Mission Board until Bill’s retirement. Since 1989, she has been involved in wide variety of volunteer activities, most of them connected to Winfree Memorial Baptist Church in Midlothian where she taught the Joy Class for many years. She will be remembered for her hospitality, her outreach and care to strangers and friends alike, her cultivation of a wide network of friendships and relationships from all of the periods of their life, and her commitment to her faith and church.

The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday evening and 11 to 1 on Thursday at the Huguenot Chapel, Woody Funeral Home, 1020 Huguenot Road, followed by a graveside burial service at 3:00 at Westhampton Memorial Park. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, April 5 at 2:00 p.m. at Winfree Memorial Baptist Church, 13617 Midlothian Turnpike, Midlothian, Va. 23113.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Winfree Memorial Baptist Church, 13617 Midlothian Turnpike, Midlothian, Va. 23113 and/or in honor of her overseas work with Nigerian women, to support scholarships for Nigerian women at the Coady International Institute of St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, currently directed by Alice’s son, John. Those donations should be made out to the Friends of St. Francis Xavier University, designated to the Alice Gaventa Scholarship Fund, and mailed to Friends of St. Francis Xavier University, 40 Warren St., 3rd Floor, Charlestown, MA 02129. (Friends of St. Francis Xavier University has USA 501(C) 3 status and will provide US donors with tax receipts.)