Maude Cary was a missionary to Muslims in Morocco. Cary was raised on a Kansas farm and became interested in missions through missionaries who were entertained in her home when she was growing up. In 1901 she sailed for North Africa, where she served for more than 50 years with the Gospel Missionary Union. Her initial adjustment to missionary work was difficult. The fact that she outscored a male counterpart in language study, combined with her tendency toward “gaiety, friendliness, and laughter” and “pride of dress,” led to an internal mission board decision that she should return home. Her pleas to be retained and her promise to mend her ways kept her on the field, but her struggles continued. She desperately desired to be married but finally accepted her fate of being “an old maid missionary.” Her ministry among the Muslims was difficult and slow. During World War II all the missionaries were evacuated except for herself and three other single women. She was placed in charge of the work, and following the war she served as the mission’s elder stateswoman. In that capacity she founded a Bible institute and trained new missionaries. At the age of 74 she returned to Morocco for the last time; after three more years of ministry, she retired.

Ruth A. Tucker

Bibliography

Evelyn Stenbock, “Miss Terri”: The Story of Maude Cary, Pioneer GMU Missionary in Morocco (1970).

Ruth A. Tucker, From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya: A Biographical History of Christian Missions (1983).

This article is reproduced, with permission, from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, copyright © 1998, by Gerald H. Anderson, W. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan. All rights reserved.