Alyce Ratcliff, 102, of Turlock, California, passed away 6 May 2026. She was a retired missionary who served globally for 35 years.
Born on a farm outside of Warner, a small town in Oklahoma, Alyce and her family were part of the migration from Oklahoma to California as a result of the devastation caused by the dustbowl. They settled in the San Joaquin valley, where Alyce’s father, Dewey Law, worked as a rancher and eventually owned his own cotton farm, raising a family of three boys in addition to Alyce.
She was the first in her family to attend college and went to Pasadena Nazarene College, now Point Loma Nazarene Univerisity, in Pasadena, California. There she met and married the love of her life, Herbert Ratcliff – also a farmer’s kid from central California.
Herb and Alyce both felt the call to the missions field while they were in college. After Herb attended Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City (he graduated in the first class from the seminary, working three jobs while studying), they moved back to California with their first daughter, Pamela, to pastor in Willows, where their second daughter, Patricia, was born.
While pastoring in Exeter, they received clearance to become Nazarene missionaries. After the birth of their third daughter, Susan, they left California in September 1954 to travel to what was then British Guiana in South America. Two years later, they went on to what became the foundation of their missionary work around education, serving at the Caribbean Nazarene Training College in Trinidad and Tobago.
With God’s help, Alyce went to a foreign country with three little girls and made a life that was calm, structured and happy. This was especially amazing given that there was very little support or communication from back home–airmail letters about once a month, and a “mission box” once a year. When her brother was killed in a car accident, Alyce only learned of it by mail after the funeral.
She used her college education, a couple of first aid classes, and a gift for sewing to organize the first library for the school. She home schooled three children at different levels for three years, taught new mothers in the local village how to care for their babies with good hygiene (she even delivered a student’s baby), and made all of her family’s clothes.
Alyce’s missionary career encompassed Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Bermuda, spanning the years 1954-1989. The church sent Alyce and Herb to Mexico City to learn Spanish in 1966 so they could continue their education work in Spanish speaking countries.
She loved all of her mission assignments, and was especially happy in their last post in Bermuda as the British colony reminded her of happy times in Trinidad and allowed her to indulge her passion for English fine china.
Alyce and Herb had always wanted to retire in the foothills of California. After finishing their missionary service, the couple settled near Placerville, where they were active in the Nazarene church and tended their gardens; Herb grew vegetables and Alyce grew roses.
Eventually they moved to live closer to Pamela in Elk Grove, California, outside of Sacramento. After Herb’s death in 2009, Alyce moved into a retirement home in Turlock, California. She continued to be a constant, prayerful influence on her family and many friends throughout the remainder of her 102 years–often advising people as they aged, “always make young friends!”
She is survived by two daughters, Pamela Dehn and Susan Symington; five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
This quote was found in her Bible after she died: “The inner presence of God’s love is the only equalizer for the pressure of the world.”
A celebration of Alyce’s life will be held on Saturday, June 20, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. at Connecting Point Church of the Nazarene, 3200 E. Monte Vista Ave. Denair, California 95316.