Ida Bennett Lusk

Ida Eudocia Bennett Lusk, age 97, passed away peacefully at her home in Brownsville, Tennessee, on April 11, 2024, surrounded by her family. 

Ida was born on April 4, 1927, in Fruitland, Tennessee, to Rev. R.K. Bennett and Florence Hunt Bennett. Ida grew up loving music as her father was a singer and composer of hymns. She loved acting in plays and playing the piano, but more than anything, Ida loved her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Ida graduated from Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, with a degree in elementary education. She then attended seminary at Southwestern Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas with a desire to go into music ministry. It was at seminary that Ida met her husband Richard Lee Lusk of Greenville, South Carolina. They married on June 26, 1953. Richard and Ida had five daughters and served as Southern Baptist International missionaries for 37 years in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and the Philippines. 

Ida was preceded in death by her husband in 2018. She is survived by her five daughters and four sons in law: Miriam Lusk Berry, Sylvia Lusk Harwell (Mark Harwell), Florence Lavinia Lusk (Ed Brainard), Naomi Lusk Lay (David Lay), and Nancy Lusk Tanneberg (Stephen Tanneberg), as well as four grandsons: Daniel Harwell, Matthew Berry, Bennett Brainard, and Jesse Tanneberg, and a new great-granddaughter born during the eclipse of April 9, 2024, Esther Celine Berry.

The Lusk sisters would like to thank the wonderful women who cared so lovingly for their mother: Emma Bozeman, Tracy Tims, Bobbie Turner, Mary Hicks, Doris Cockrell, and Loretta Reed. In addition, the family would like to thank the wonderful staff from AseraCare Hospice and Dr. Jason Goolsby of Brownsville Family Medicine. 

The funeral service to celebrate Ida's life will be held at Stanton Baptist Church located at 107 Covington Street in Stanton, Tennessee, on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, at 2:00 p.m. with Bro. Ed Miller presiding. The visitation will be held at Stanton Baptist Church from 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

In lieu of flowers the family asks that gifts be made in honor of Ida Lusk to either the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention at the following address, IMB, 3806 Monument Avenue, Richmond, Virginia 23230 or to the Stanton Baptist Church, 107 Covington Street, Stanton, Tennessee 38069.  All arrangements and services are under the direction of the Lea & Simmons Funeral Home in Brownsville, Tennessee.