LOOKING BACK: Southwestern former student honored by Queen Elizabeth

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has a unique connection between a late former student and Queen Elizabeth II of England, who passed away Sept. 8 after reigning for 70 years over the United Kingdom and its Commonwealth. Josephine Scaggs, a Southwestern student from 1936-39, was honored with an award from the monarch on February 7, 1956. 

According to news releases following the 1956 event, the Member of the British Empire Award was given to those who had rendered outstanding service to God and the British Empire. The award was presented to Scaggs, a native of Oklahoma and graduate of the University of Arkansas, in a colorful and meaningful ceremony in front of the House of Assembly at Enugu, Nigeria, reported Southwestern News in May 1956. Scaggs was the only American honored during Queen Elizabeth’s three-week tour of Nigeria. The Corpus Christi Times reported at the time in order for Scaggs to be considered for the award, she had to be nominated by a government official. Scaggs was nominated by a senior government official in the Nigeria area that knew of her “unselfish work among the people of Nigeria,” according to the paper.

At the time of the award ceremony, she had served as a Southern Baptist missionary through the then-Foreign Mission Board in Nigeria for almost 17 years and for 11 years had done educational and evangelistic work in the Niger Delta region with headquarters at Joinkrama. 

Scaggs was a missionary adviser for a large river area and would travel several days at a time by canoe to reach the 42 churches and teaching stations. She also managed seven-day schools. Even despite a severe flood that occurred at the time of her canoe travels, she still worked fervently for the Lord. 

When Scaggs first went to Joinkrama, she discovered there was a great need for medical work and a teaching ministry. She held an unofficial clinic for the sick who flocked to her door. Later, Southern Baptist medical missionaries came to her area. A Southern Baptist missionary who served there at the same time said, “One of the things that meant most to our work were the almost daily visits of Scaggs to the patients. Her visits were looked forward to and treasured by the people.” 

She was remembered with high regard and affection by the faculty and staff of Southwestern as she served in various roles while on campus. Scaggs’s wise counsel was valued by the other women students as they sought her out for advice in making life decisions. She was a student in the seminary’s School of Theology from 1936 to 1939 as well as during one furlough in the United States.

Scaggs’s mother passed away shortly after her arrival to Nigeria for mission work, yet she persevered. Neither separation from loved ones, nor physical hardship caused by pioneer conditions on her mission field could deter her work in a foreign land. Her devotion to the Lord held her fast as she ministered to the people of Nigeria. In the 1950s, CBS produced a documentary on Scaggs’s life and work in Nigeria. Additionally, three books were written and published about her ministry.

Scaggs retired from mission work in 1978 and returned to the United States where she spoke in mission camps across the country recounting her mission service.

Scaggs passed away November 22, 2001.