Carleta VanSickle Underwood

Carleta VanSickle Underwood passed away Monday afternoon at her home in Tavares, Florida, surrounded by her children, Donna Perman, Franz Beard and Gregory Underwood. She was born in Gainesville, Florida, the daughter of C. Carle and Ivey Van Sickle. A graduate of PK Yonge High School, she was an insurance agent for Independent Life, Mutual and United of Omaha, and Jefferson Standard. As a young girl growing up in Gainesville her dream was to become a foreign missionary. World War II, marriage, raising children and a career made her think her dream had passed her by but in 1979, Jerry Hayner, the pastor at First Baptist Church in Gainesville, convinced her and husband Dom Underwood to begin an international ministry. Five years later, she and Dom moved over to Westside Baptist Church where they began another international ministry, this time as a Sunday School class that met under the pine trees due to a lack of space at the old Westside campus. The ministry thrived as Westside grew. She taught students from around the world English, quite often around the dinner table at her home. She was a taxi service, tutored them so they could pass their driver license tests, served as a surrogate mom for homesick students, taught them how to cook and eat strange American food like chicken and dumplings, and most important, made certain that every one of them knew about a God in heaven who sent his only son to die for their sins. She didn’t lead every one of them to that moment in faith when they truly believed, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying. During all this time she was an exemplary wife to Dom and mother to Donna (Eustis, Florida), Franz (Tavares, Florida) and Gregory (wife Julie; Johnson City, Tennessee), plus hundreds of "children by choice." Her legacy includes granddaughter Kimberly Newman (Clearwater, Florida), grandson Michael Burleson (Johnson City, Tennessee), three great-grandchildren and four great-great grandchildren. Services will be held at Bay Street Baptist Church, Eustis on Friday, December 12, 2025 at 11:00 AM. The family will receive friends at the church prior to the service from 10:00 - 11:00 AM. Burial will be at Antioch Cemetery, Gainesville. Arrangements by Harden-Pauli Funeral Home in Eustis, Florida