GRACE RODRIGUEZ
1915-2001
CUBA
Approved 1955

Grace (Dirks) Rodriguez was born on August 28, 1915, in Boone, Iowa. Her father was with the Boone Biblical Institutions, modeled after the George Mueller homes. It consisted of a Girls' Home, Boys' Home, Infants' Home, a Twelve Grade School, and a Bible School. When Grace was 17, a young man attending Bible School there began to visit her. A neighbor remarked that they should not let him come because she might marry that Cuban boy, move to Cuba, and have a hard time. Well, she did marry that Cuban, Joe Rodriguez, on August 1, 1937, and yes, they did move to Cuba when they had been married for only four days. They ministered in the city of Matanzas, a large city southeast of Havana. 

In 1956 they became part of the Baptist Bible Fellowship and our first missionaries in Cuba. After Castro's takeover in 1959, they fled the island on one of the last boats. They then ministered in Puerto Rico and Baja, California. After retirement in 1991, they moved to Houston and continued witnessing to the Spanish-speaking people there. Joe preceded Grace to Glory on April 17, 2001. Grace had her coronation day on October 20, 2001. She was survived by one daughter, Yolanda Pittman, and a granddaughter, Rebecca Pittman.