Cassandra Naomi Stockburger, 95, once of Cleveland, Tennessee (then Chattanooga Presbytery), who served as a missionary of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Cauca Valley Presbytery, Colombia, South America, from 1948 to 1950, died on July 31, 2020. She was the aunt of the Reverend Donna Stockburger Heflin (West Tennessee Presbytery).

Aware of a call to missionary service as a young child, Cassandra was commissioned as a missionary at the Sixth-sixth Missionary Convention of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, June 11-16, 1947. The Reverend O. T. Arnett gave the charge and the commission. The Reverend Wayne Wiman led the prayer of consecration.

In 1947, she stated, “My religious background has been wholly Cumberland Presbyterian even though my mother was a Baptist until some time after we moved to Tennessee. My father is a Cumberland Presbyterian and a member of a family who refused to go with their church in the union of 1906. After the union there was no Cumberland Presbyterian Church near, but they kept up with the work of the denomination through the Church paper. Soon after our move to Tennessee and the older members of the family had placed their membership in the local church my father was ordained an elder and my oldest brother a deacon. One by one our family made their decisions for Christ and became members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.”

The fifth of six children, Cassandra, widely known as Cassie, was born on June 28, 1925, on her grandfather’s farm in Catoosa County, Georgia, near the Georgia-Tennessee state line. Her family moved to the Flint Springs area of Bradley County, Tennessee, near Cleveland, when Cassandra was four. She was educated at Flint Springs Elementary and graduated from the consolidated Bradley County High School in Cleveland. Cassandra entered Bethel College in the fall of 1943 and graduated Cum Laude in the spring of 1947.

On September 28, 1947, Cassandra boarded the plane in Miami, Florida, for Medellin, Colombia, where it was intended she would first study Spanish for a year before working as a teacher at the Colegio Americano in Cali. The language course was cut short and in December 1947, she began teaching. She also oversaw the food service program and took on administrative duties at the Colegio. However, she became infected with Entamoeba histolytica during her first year in Colombia. Although she continued to work at Colegio, her condition became chronic despite the medical treatment given to her, and complications developed. Her doctors in Colombia insisted she return to the United States to recover. She planned to return to Colombia after recovering but never did.

Cassandra enrolled at Scarritt College, Vanderbilt School of Religion, in June 1952, and later received a Masters Degree in Literature and History of the Bible. Upon graduation Cassandra became the Program Director at the Industrial YMCA in Chattanooga, Tennessee, working with underprivileged children.

In 1954, she began working with the migrant ministry of the National Council of Churches in Indiana. Shortly thereafter, she taught English in a small private girl’s school on the Campus of Montreat College and the Southern Presbyterian Conference Center in North Carolina. After a year, Cassandra began working with students in labor camps in southeast Texas. In 1955, she was appointed Mid­-South Regional Director of the Migrant Ministry, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, responsible for developing educational programs for migrant children in Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma.

In 1963, Cassandra was named Director of a new initiative focusing on educating migrant children nationwide. It was sponsored by the National Child Labor Committee in New York City. She often appeared before committees of the United States Senate and House of Representatives which were considering legislation concerning children and their families. One of her most satisfying accomplishments was the establishment of more stringent child labor laws in the United States.

In the 1975, Cassandra was named Executive Director of the National Organization for Migrant Children where she continued her work as a spokesperson and an advocate for migrant children and their families. Unfortunately, there was very little funding for the continued work and the program soon ceased.

In 1980, the Educational Resources Information Center, Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools, published Cassandra’s essay The Impact of Interstate Programs on Continuity in Migrant Education.

In February 1978, Cassandra enrolled in a full time culinary program at the New School in New York City. Upon graduation she developed a private catering service for churches, synagogues and private individuals. She retired in the late 1990s.

Additional primary information about Cassandra Stockburger can be found on the website of the Historical Foundation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America: http://www.cumberland.org/hfcpc/leaders/StockburgerCassandra.htm