Jessie Woodrow McElroy Junkin McCall, 87, of Black Mountain, N.C., longtime Presbyterian missionary to Asia, died November 8. A memorial service in celebration of her life was held November 12 at Montreat (N.C.) Church, where she had been an active member since 1981.
She was born June 24, 1919, daughter to Presbyterian pastor, I. Stuart McElroy Jr., and Alice Wilson McElroy, missionaries to Japan. In June 1939, she graduated from the University of Richmond and married William (Bill) F. Junkin Jr.
For more than 40 years, 1940-81, the Junkins served as Presbyterian (PCUS) evangelistic-educational missionaries in China and Taiwan, with interim years in Virginia.
Their years of service in part covered years of upheaval and war. Son Bill was born during three years of internment as prisoners of war in the Philippines.
After retirement to Montreat, N.C., and Bill’s death in 1988, Jessie married R. Donnell (Don) McCall, and served with him in Taiwan as missionaries with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Following a second retirement, Jessie lived in both Montreat, N.C. and at Highland Farms Retirement Community.
Jessie Junkin McCall is survived by three children: William (Bill) F. Junkin, III, of Saint Petersburg, Fla.; Alice Junkin Landolt, of West Lafayette, Ind.; Sarah Junkin Woodard and family, of Nicaragua; eight grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. She is survived by three step-children: Roy K. McCall, of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Robert (Bob) McCall, of Whispering Pines, N.C.; Francis McCall Rosenbluth, of Hamden, Conn.; and seven step-grandchildren.
