Missionaries in Brazil: 52 Ancestors 2024 Prompt “Worship”

 

From Rural Kentucky to Mission Work in Brazil: Nina Dodson Hankins Life of Faith

Nina Pearl Dodson Hankins: 1908-1997 (Maternal Second Cousin 1x Removed)

 

Nina Pearl Dodson and her husband, Rev. William Clyde Hankins, truly lived their faith, choosing to become missionaries in Brazil for twenty-five years. What is truly amazing about their story is how much of a leap of faith this truly was: they were independent missionaries, with no church organization supporting them, and when they left for Brazil, neither William nor Nina spoke a word of Portuguese.

So how did a young woman from rural Kentucky end up serving as a missionary in South America? Nina Pearl Dodson was born September 17, 1908, in Calhoun County, Kentucky. Her parents were Otis Dodson and Mabel McFarland. Mabel was the daughter of Nancy Catherine Leachman, the elder sister of Cora Leachman (Grandma Jandy’s mother). This made Mabel and Lorene first cousins.

Nina was the oldest of Mabel and Otis’ four children. Mabel and Otis were young parents: Mabel was only sixteen when Nina was born, and Otis was twenty. The family farmed in McLean County. Nina attended the local high school in Beech Grove, Kentucky. She then attended the Western Kentucky State Teachers College in Bowling Green, Kentucky to become a teacher.

Beech Grove School, 1926. Nina graduated from this school. 

Her sense of adventure and commitment to the underprivileged led her to take a teaching job in Oklahoma at a school of mostly Native American students. While she was home for the summer in 1929, she attended a religious revival in Beech Grove, where she met the young seminarian leading the singing that evening, William Clyde Hankins.

William was immediately smitten, and the two began corresponding. He wanted to get married, but she was reluctant. That Christmas, William left his family’s holiday celebration in Arkansas. He borrowed his brother’s car and drove 600 miles in a single day over mostly dirt roads to reach Nina in Oklahoma. They recalled the moment of their reunion years later in a news article. 

William declared, “It’s now or never.” To his delight, Nina was swept away by his declaration. She recalled, “I told my superintendent that this crazy young fellow had come to take me away.” They had to track down the local minister, who was out bird hunting, so they could get married immediately.

Rev. Hankins finished his seminary training and served as minister at several churches in the south. The couple had three children, Dorothy, born in 1930, Nona born in 1932, and Billy (William Clyde Jr.) born in 1934. Tragically, Dorothy developed leukemia and died at age three.

By 1940, the Hankins family was living in Cleburne, Texas, where William was the pastor at Field Street Baptist Church. According to an article from the Owensboro Messenger years later,

“The Hankins had long wanted to become foreign missionaries, but his wife’s ill health apparently had postponed their appointment by the Southern Baptist Foreign Missionary Board. Then, by coincidence—or divine intervention—the president of the Baptist Seminary in Rio de Janeiro spoke at a meeting in Calhoun in 1939.”

The Hankins were there, and the seminary president encouraged them to fulfill their dream.

“We were told we wouldn’t starve if we went as independent missionaries,” Rev. Hankins said.” He sought Nina’s opinion, and she replied that “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

Within months, Rev. Hankins resigned as pastor in Cleburne, Texas, and the family packed to move to Brazil. Nona was eight years old, and Billy was five. They sailed from New Orleans aboard the steamship Delmundo (interestingly, the Delmundo was sunk by a German U-Boat two years later near Cuba), landing in Rio de Janeiro. 

The Delmundo

From there they traveled to Mato Grosso, a large state in west-central Brazil about three times the size of Texas. Few people live there; the land even today is mostly covered with Amazon rainforest, wetlands and plains. Hankins told a newspaper reporter that “because the area was almost inaccessible by road, it was a haven for criminals and revolutionaries.”

Rev. Hankins recalled that he arrived in Brazil with only $300 in his pocket, and a Portuguese-English dictionary. He practiced the language for three months before delivering his first sermon. His former congregation in Texas sent the family off with a “portable folding organ and a piano-accordion”, along with a pledge to pay half their living expenses.

Even so, they “became accustomed to a steady diet of fish, rice and black beans.” Despite the challenges, they established an orphanage and worked to convert the people of the area.

They remained in Brazil for twenty-five years, returning to the United States occasionally to speak at missionary events and to visit family. 

While in Brazil, they added two children to the family, son Jerry Otis Hankins, born in September, 1947, and daughter Nina Eunice Hankins, no birth date available. I am not sure if either of these children were adopted from the orphanage. Nina Eunice chose to marry and remain in Brazil. The other three children returned to the United States, settling down in Texas and Indiana.

Following their retirement from mission work in 1965, Rev. Hankins served as interim pastor back in Owensboro, Kentucky and later in Arkansas and Texas. Rev. Hankins died in 1999 and Nina died January 6, 1997 at the age of 88.

Nina and her husband did more than merely worship. They literally lived their faith, risking everything to travel to a remote area where they tried to share their beliefs with others.

 

Sources:

“Cleburne Pair to Go to Brazil”. Fort Worth Telegram, May 4, 1940. Newspapers.com.

“Just a Simple Preacher: Hankins, family spend 25 years as South America Missionaries.” Owensboro Messenger Inquirer, Owensboro, KY. Dec 8, 1975. Newspapers.com

Obituary for Clyde Hankins Sr., The Marshall News Messenger. Thursday, Nov 25, 1999. Newspapers.com.

Obituary for Nina Pearl Dodson Hankins. The Messenger Inquirer. Owensboro, KY. Tues., January 7, 1997. https://www.newspapers.com/image/380325933

Missionary Conference. The Southwest Wave. Los Angeles, CA. Oct. 31, 1946. Newspapers.com.