Minette Drumwright Pratt

Minette Williams Drumwright Pratt, B.A. ’51, died on June 15 at the age of 93. She was a devoted wife, mother, grandparent, denominational servant, speaker, author and Baylor Regent. Throughout her life, Pratt had a heart for missions. 

Pratt was born on Nov. 3, 1930, to Tallie Williams and Minnie Musgrave Williams in Nixon, Texas, where her father was the pastor of the First Baptist Church. Shortly thereafter, the family moved to San Antonio, where her father was pastor of the Northside Baptist Church until he retired. Pratt’s mother was the church pianist, founded and taught at the church-affiliated school and led the church’s mission programs.

Pratt earned a B.A. in English from Baylor University in 1951. At Baylor, she was a member of Alpha Omega sorority, a Baylor Beauty, the star quarterback of the powder puff football team and an active member of the summer missions program, The Invincibles. 

While a student, she met Huber L. Drumwright Jr., B.A. ’47, a doctoral student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. They fell in love and married shortly after her graduation. When they married, Drumwright was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Allen, and Pratt was an English teacher at Allen High School. Drumwright went on to pastor churches in Texas and Oklahoma, and Pratt led numerous missions action projects, Bible studies, Bible schools and WMUs.

The couple returned to Fort Worth in 1960. They joined Broadway Baptist Church, and Pratt’s passion for “mission action” flourished through the Broadway Baptist Center. Pratt designed and led programs for low-income women, battered women, orphans, unwed mothers and women prisoners.

Pratt was a speaker and Bible teacher and served on boards for the Women’s Missionary Union, Home Mission Board (now the North American Mission Board), Baptist General Convention of Texas, Seminary Woman’s Club, Woman’s Club of Fort Worth, Friends of the Fort Worth Library, Lena Pope Children’s Home, Edna Gladney Home (for unwed mothers) and Dorcas House (for battered women). Pratt attended Southwestern Seminary and later served as president of Southwestern Seminary Alumni. 

Pratt and Drumwright lived a life of adventure. They lived briefly in Princeton, New Jersey, and Athens, Greece. They traveled Europe and the Middle East often, and both were lecturers for study tours of the Bible Lands and Europe.

In 1980, they moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where Drumwright served as the executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Arkansas. After 18 months, Drumwright died of a sudden heart attack when Pratt was 50 years old. Shortly thereafter, she was asked to join the leadership team at the Foreign Mission Board (FMB) in Richmond, Virginia. She worked at the FMB for 13 years and was the inaugural director of international prayer strategies through which she designed programs to engage churches and individuals in prayer for foreign missions. 

Upon retirement, Pratt returned to Fort Worth. She served on the Baylor University Board of Regents from 1999 to 2008 and was an advocate of establishing the Baylor Honors College. Baylor was one of the loves of Pratt’s life, and she considered it a great privilege to serve the University and its students. While serving as a Regent, Pratt was blessed to re-meet and fall in love with William (Bill) Pratt, A.B.C. ’02, a retired pastor and psychologist, and they married in 2002. Bill truly lived out his vow to be a loving partner in sickness and in health as he loved, cared for and supported Pratt through her long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease until his death in April of 2024.