Muriel Braughton

Kathie Braughton, born Muriel Kathleen Blount, of Hot Springs, Arkansas, passed away peacefully to her eternal home on June 7, 2025, at the age of 86. Kathie walked through her final days on earth with a grateful heart, in the company of loving family and dear friends. 

Kathie was born July 17, 1938, to G.C. and Orlene Blount in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1956, she met her future father-in-law, who told her to look for the best looking boy at the youth event she was attending that night, and that young man was Charles Thurman Braughton, who did indeed become her lifelong sweetheart.

 Kathie and Thurman Braughton married in 1957 and enjoyed 62 years of happy marriage, with 30 of those years spent together in service as missionaries. They were blessed with four children: Joel, Dan, Carol Ruth, and Sam.

 Thurman and Kathie spent their early years of marriage in Fort Worth, Texas, at Southwestern Baptist Seminary, where Thurman graduated with a Masters in Religious Education and a Bachelor in Divinity in 1965. Kathie spent her time there providing childcare to children of other seminary students, generally learning how to stretch a student’s salary to provide for a growing family, and wholeheartedly supporting Thurman’s studies.

 Kathie served alongside Thurman in pastoring churches in Gatesville, Texas, and Antlers, Oklahoma, before they were appointed by the Foreign Mission Board to missions service in Southeast Asia. This led to lives on the mission field in Penang, Malaysia; Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia; and on the island of Mindanao, Philippines. Thurman and Kathie were a loving team as they worked in church planting and evangelism.

 Missionary life for Kathie meant parenting four children in unfamiliar cultures, learning new languages, navigating treacherous roads, searching for ingredient substitutes to make occasional traditional American foods for the family, maintaining sensitivity to local political hierarchies, relying on word of mouth for important news in a world before cell phones, treasuring letters from home, always being prepared for unexpected house guests, and a myriad of other tasks. Kathie was able to laugh quickly when life took a turn from “the sublime to the ridiculous” and supplied an optimistic outlook and practical approach to life that complemented Thurman’s warm and friendly sincerity. They shared a desire to introduce the love of Christ to all, everywhere they went. Teaching was a special joy to Kathie, and she taught at Southern Baptist College in M’Lang, Philippines, lead numerous Bible studies, and loved teaching English as a second language. She was an invaluable partner to Thurman in organizing and preparing, whether for church planting excursions into the mountains or missions talks while on furlough.

 Upon their retirement from the International Mission Board in May of 1998, Thurman and Kathie returned to Arkansas. Their “retirement” years were filled with continued service through the Missions Ministries Team of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, Friendship International, and at their home church, Park Place Baptist in Hot Springs. Kathie enjoyed singing in the choir, and teaching in various capacities at Park Place.

 Kathie cherished hosting family and friends and sharing her and Thurman’s unique Hot Springs home, affectionately known as the “Rocky Retreat”. She delighted in sharing the special joys of their property, from relaxing afternoons on the front porch and exploring the woods to enjoying the seasonal waterfall and leaving food for raccoons and other wildlife. She and Thurman lovingly planted vegetable gardens, beautiful flowers, plants and trees, creating a true haven for all who visited. Kathie was also a gifted cook, sharing her talents at countless gatherings, preparing both traditional American dishes and delicious Chinese-Malaysian and Filipino cuisine. As a grandmother, Kathie always had plenty of snickerdoodle cookies on hand, played countless card and board games, and was specially gifted at cultivating experiences her grandchildren would remember.

 A lifelong avid reader, Kathie passed her love of reading along to her children and grandchildren. Kathie was also keeper and teller of cherished family memories and tales of her and Thurman’s life on the mission field. In her later years, Kathie enjoyed an active social life with dear friends at Country Club Village in Hot Springs. She maintained her strong desire to live as a compelling witness for Christ to the very end of her life. She expressed daily gratitude for her life and loved ones, and regularly told her family she prayed for them by name every day. She will be dearly missed and lovingly remembered.

 Preceding Kathie in death are her parents, her beloved husband Thurman, her sons Joel and Dan, and her daughter Carol. Cherishing her memory and honoring her life are her son and daughter-in-love, Sam and Paula Braughton of Plano, Texas; daughters- and son-in-love Tanni Braughton, Melissa Braughton and Royce Duncan; and her sister, Millie Dove of Benton, Arkansas. Kathie was devoted Grandmother to Bryn Braughton and wife Autumn, Micah Braughton and wife Amanda, Jacob Braughton, Caleb Braughton, Benjamin Braughton and wife Jazmyn, Nathan Braughton, Abbie Braughton, Aaron Braughton, and Wanda Adams. She was loving great-grandmother to Duncan Adams, Michaela Adams, Acacia Braughton, Velda Ellora Grace Braughton, and Gideon Micah Braughton.

 Services to be held Friday, June 13, 10:00a.m., at Smith Family Funeral Home in Hot Springs, with family visitation beginning at 10:00 and service at 10:30, Brant Perrigo officiating. Interment immediately following at Memorial Gardens.

 The family requests that in lieu of flowers Kathie be remembered through memorials in her memory to the International Mission Board.