Marjorie Hall
Born in Lindsey, Ohio, Marjorie “Marge” Williamson grew up in what she would later call “one of the finest Christian homes.” When she was only a year old, Marge and her sisters lost their mother to cancer. Their father remarried when Marge was three, and she had a close relationship with her father, a holiness preacher who served for more than forty years, and with her stepmother, whose love for music inspired Marge’s study of piano, violin, and voice.
Marge accepted Christ when she was four years old and experienced full sanctification at the age of nine. She attended Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, for one year, and then transferred to Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, where she was a part of the Student Volunteers, a group that gathered regularly to pray for world missions. God’s perfect timing in her life was apparent: during her year at Taylor, she met Devee Brown. A few years later, they reconnected when he began his studies at Asbury Seminary. The two became close friends and were married in 1943.
Devee felt a strong call to missions, and before they were married, Marge prayed fervently that God’s will for her own life would be made clear. She later wrote of hearing her call to missions during that time of prayer, describing it as “a burning desire—an almost consuming one—to go and tell at any cost.”
She and Devee applied to WGM for missionary service while they were engaged, and soon after their marriage they were assigned to Tegucigalpa Bible School in Honduras. Their first two children, Paul and Judy, were born in Honduras. Their youngest two, Ron and Tim, joined their family after they were transferred to the Texas/Mexico Border field in 1950. In addition to raising her family, Marge taught English and was involved in music ministry. After returning to Honduras in 1964, Marge organized a variety of women’s ministries, holding conventions and weekly meetings.
Soon after Marge and Devee returned for a fifth term of missionary service in 1968, Devee suffered two heart attacks. After moving back to Wilmore, Marge and Devee piloted a project at Asbury that would later become known as Student Involvement (SI) for Missions. The Browns discipled students at the college and the seminary for nearly eleven years. Today, hundreds of college students have been impacted by the WGM Student Involvement Center at Asbury, and countless more at SI centers at other universities.
Devee and Marge retired from World Gospel Mission in 1983 after 36 years of service. After retirement, they continued their work in missions, moving to Arizona and serving at Southwest Indian School and a local church. Devee passed away in February 1992. Marge remarried in 2005 to Winfield Hall, a retired pastor.
Marge constantly trusted God for guidance and peace, living a life driven by a passion to reach the lost. She penned these words the day before her departure to Honduras in 1945: “Oh, that I might be able to help some precious hearts, now engulfed in sin, to see how Jesus can stoop down, genuinely save them from sin, purge all that is carnal, and completely satisfy their hearts.”
World Gospel Mission joins with Marge’s family and friends in celebrating her life and service to our Lord. Second Corinthians 4:18 (NIV) testifies of her life: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” Marge truly fixed her eyes on the eternal, and we rejoice that she is in the presence of her Savior today.