Daphne Dunger
June 22, 1939 ~ July 11, 2026
Daphne Dunger, 87, Sioux Falls, SD, completed her earthly journey and entered into the presence of her savior on Saturday morning, July 11, 2026, at Good Samaritan Village in Sioux Falls, SD. Per her wish, her physical body is donated to the University of South Dakota.
A Visitation will be held at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, at 18th Street Church, 2400 W. 18th Street, Sioux Falls, SD, with a service following at 10:30 a.m. To watch the service via livestream, click HERE.
Daphne Dunger was born on June 22, 1939, in Ebolowa, French Cameroon, to George and Louise (Krack) Dunger, who were serving as missionaries at Warwar in the heart of the Cameroon Grassland in western Africa. Daphne was the first North American Baptist missionary child born in Cameroon. Her early years in the Ndu area were formative and “happy ones.” Her father’s illness necessitated the family’s return to the United States when she was eight. She attended grade school and high school in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and South Dakota.
One of her early childhood memories was seeing a missionary nurse rub salve on the sore neck of a Cameroonian girl and realizing this was a way she could really serve Jesus. Daphne confessed her faith in Jesus through baptism as a 7th grader. In 1965, while attending a missionary rally at the North American Baptist Triennial Conference in Waco, TX, she committed her life to Jesus Christ with a renewed desire to return to her native Africa as a missionary nurse. Later that year she applied for missionary service with the North American Baptist Conference mission society. She prepared herself by earning her Registered Nurse degree and diploma from the Methodist Kahler School of Nursing in Rochester, MN (1960) and then earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing Education at the University of Minnesota (1964). She was accepted by the Frontier Nursing Service Graduate School of Midwifery and also studied for a time at North American Baptist Seminary in Sioux Falls, SD.
A commissioning service was held at Trinity Baptist Church in Sioux Falls, SD on May 23, 1965, shortly before Daphne returned to Cameroon, the land of her birth. There she served as a nurse, a nursing instructor and organizer of the Life Abundant program which took basic health care and the good news of the Gospel to very remote villages of the country. In 1995, Daphne was diagnosed with leukemia and returned to the United States for treatment.
In 2017, Daphne and sister Amaryliss (Amie), sold their house in Brandon, SD, and moved to an apartment in Sioux Falls. Amie died in January 2021, and Daphne’s declining health led to transitions to Independent Living and then to skilled nursing residence at Good Samaritan Village where her needs were well cared for.
I was with her when she was diagnosed.
She was my mother. We were together most times when she was here. I miss her dearly.
Cameroon, the country in central-west Africa of Daphne’s birth, was always much on her mind. Even though her health did not permit her to return there as a regular missionary nurse, she returned several times on a short-term basis to organize and lead refresher courses for the Cameroonians who volunteered at Abundant Life Program’s small outposts that were in several remote villages where the nearest professional medical help was many miles away by very poor roads. I remember taking her to the Sioux Falls Airport as she headed for Cameroon loaded down with teaching materials for those refresher courses. It took weeks of work to prepare for those by long distance with the staff of the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services. In those remote Cameroonian villages, such basic help as medications and bandages for wounds and other basic medical needs were not available until an Abundant Life volunteer program was opened there. Most volunteers were from the small local Baptist churches in those remote areas. Daphne had spearheaded the starting of the Abundant Life Program during her missionary nurse years in Cameroon.
she could was not able after her medical condition
God rest her soul. She is so fondly remembered by people in the areas in the Northwest Region of Cameroon where she worked and where there still is a hospital named DUNGER Hospital, in honor of her Dad and Family.
I was blessed to meet her in 2019 when she and her other sister who passed away in 2021 I believe, attended the Funeral of Miss Berneice Westerman who served in Cameroon as well and founded my Alma Mater, Saker Baptist College, Victoria, now Limbe.
What an amazing person she was!
We. Cameroonians, mourn her passing.
In Cameroon, the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services posted the news of Daphne’s passing:
“ Daphne Dunger, founder of the Life Abundant Primary Healthcare (LAP) transcends to eternal glory.
According to information gathered on the website of Heartland Funeral Home and Cremation Services…”
Sister Dunger was a lovely and kind person. She gave my late mother ( Polina) her first job as a gardener at LAP center. As kids we were always so excited when sister Dunger greeted us in our native language.