Eunice Duncan Liesmann died Thursday evening, November 12, 2020, at the ICU of CHI-St. Luke's Memorial Medical Center, Livingston, Texas, following 12 days of care. She was brought there from Timberwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, where she had been a resident since the beginning of the year. Dr. David Buescher attended her in her final days. Sallie, her daughter, was at her bedside. She is now held eternally by the Jesus who sustained and guided her life daily.

She was born Eunice Pearsall Duncan, February 16, 1931, at her family home at Red Springs, NC. Her father was Joseph Lon Duncan, school superintendent and farmer, and Sallie Hall (neé Pearsall) Duncan. Eunice grew up in a loving home surrounded by family, music, and the arts. She attended public school, interrupted in second and third grade by rheumatic fever. Her local physician consulted with Dr. Paul Dudley White of Massachusetts General on her case. She recovered and caught up with her class. In high school she was a leader in student life, played basketball, and loved the choir. She did very well with her academics. After high school she attended Flora MacDonald College, Red Springs, for two years. In 1953, she finished her college at Wake Forest College, Wake Forest, NC, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in Christian Education.

Eunice spent her life in ministry. From 1953-60 she was youth minister and church secretary at Southside Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, NC. In 1960 she sought more training for ministry at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY. On her first day there she met the man she would marry two years later, Ronald Liesmann. At Seminary she was a leader in her dormitory, sang and toured with the Seminary Choir, worked as a youth minister for the Westside Baptist Church, Louisville, and graduated May 30, 1962, with her Masters of Religious Education.

Eunice married Ronald Liesmann at the First Baptist Church, Red Springs, NC, on August 4, 1962. They spent the next forty-four years together in ministry at churches in New Jersey; Bloomington, Indiana; Denver, Colorado; and Torrington, Wyoming. She was deeply involved in the ministry of each of those churches, serving as Deacon among other positions at First Baptist Church, Torrington. In New Jersey she worked for The Seeing Eye, at Morristown; at Bloomington she did remedial reading for disadvantaged students, provided hospitality for international students from Indiana University, made a home away from home for numerous students, aided the Department of Psychology with data collection about post-natal infant behavior; in Denver she was administrative assistant to the Directors of Evangelism, Christian Education, and Church Music at the Colorado Baptist General Convention; at Torrington she worked side-by-side with her husband and the work he did as pastor. In all the churches she led in the development of ministries to Preschoolers. She ministered to her husband.

At retirement she and Ron moved to Livingston, Texas. There she was active at many levels in her local church, Onalaska First Baptist. In the community she helped with disaster recovery efforts following the hurricanes and was involved in the political life of the county.

Eunice was preceded in death by her mother and father; sister, Susan Hodges Duncan Westall and her husband, Woodrow H. Westall; and nephew, Joseph Westall. She is survived by her husband, Ronald Paul Liesmann; son, Col. Michael J. Liesmann and his wife, Christine, and their daughters, Alison, Kelsey, and Emma; daughter, Sallie Liesmann Matthews, and her husband, Jim, and their children, Cole Duncan Matthews, Ella Grace Matthews, Chris Matthews and his wife, Jessica, and Sean Matthews and his wife, Aimee. She is survived by four great-grandchildren, Duke, Josiah, Kailee, and Paige. She is also survived by her nephews, William Westall, and his wife Michelle; Hillis Westall, Jr., and his children, Rebecca, Rachel, and Charles; her cousin, Alison Atkins, and her husband, Kent, and their children, Bea and Reynolds; and her cousin, June Goodwin.

We thank God for Eunice Pearsall Duncan Liesmann and her life of extravagant love, grace, and ministry. Her body will be cremated and a service held when Covid-19 permits travel to her family grave site at Red Springs, NC. The family requests no flowers. She loved the beauty, but at death they do not fit her values. Contributions may be made in her memory to Wake Forest University; to a world hunger cause; to Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Kansas; or to the church of your choice.