Mildred Bangs Wynkoop - Personal Life

Personal Life

Mildred Olive Bangs was born on 9 September 1905 in Seattle, Washington, the daughter of Carl Oliver Bangs (born in Mandal, Norway) and Mery Dupertuis (born in Ollon, Canton de Vaud, Switzerland), both immigrants to the USA. She is the older sister of theologian Carl Bangs (born 5 April 1922 in Seattle, Washington; died 7 July 2002), the author of Arminius: A Study in the Dutch Reformation (New York and Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1971; rev, ed. 1985); and also of Bernice Bangs Morgan, a former evangelist and Methodist home missions pastor in Alaska, who was at one time "the only woman minister in Alaska" (Morgan), and author of The Very Thought of Thee: Adventures of an Arctic Missionary (Zondervan, 1952). She had three other sisters. (Morgan 7)

Wynkoop's parents met Phineas Bresee, General Superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene on their honeymoon and became charter members of Seattle First Church of the Nazarene. (Holiness Today November/December 2005). Mildred Bangs entered Northwest Nazarene College and traveled in its collegiate quartet with president H. Orton Wiley on the weekends. Two years later, she followed Wiley to Pasadena College, (now Point Loma Nazarene University) to complete her bachelor degrees.

While studying at Pasadena College, Mildred met her future husband, fellow student Ralph Carl Wynkoop (born 5 October 1905 in Omaha, Nebraska; died 3 March 2001 at Kansas City, Missouri). On 27 December 1928 Mildred and Ralph were married at the Central Church of the Nazarene (now the Aurora Church of the Nazarene) in Seattle, Washington. Several ministers officiated at the wedding, including Rev. Alpin Bowes, pastor of the church, and Rev. Elsie Wallace, the first woman ordained by Phineas Bresee in the Church of the Nazarene. Their first home was Pasadena, California, where they were students at Pasadena College.