Missionary Iris D. Pierce was born September 3, 1961 in Columbia, South Carolina as the eldest child of the late Napoleon D. Pierce and Josephine C. Pierce. She entered into eternal rest on December 2, 2017.

Iris graduated from Camden High School in 1979, from South Carolina State College with a BA in Business Education in 1983, and completed courses between 2013 and 2015 toward a Master of Professional Counseling at Liberty University.

Iris committed her life to a career in business. She worked as a computer instructor with both Richland School District One and with the Columbia Housing Authority. She worked with the South Carolina Department of Health & Environmental Control (DHEC) in an executive support capacity from 1989 to 1992, and as an office manager from 1992 to 2015. She earned an Associate Public Manager Certificate in 2002 from the South Carolina Budget & Control Board, having demonstrated a mastery of fundamental supervisory concepts and techniques. Iris retired from DHEC in 2016, after 29 years of loyal service.

As a child, Iris began her spiritual journey at Trinity United Methodist Church; and later, under the guidance of her spiritual mother, Mother Susan Spann, she received the gift of the Holy Ghost at Apostolic Temple in Irmo, South Carolina, where the Late Bishop Willie Spann was the pastor. She later joined Refuge Temple Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Columbia, South Carolina, under the pastorate of the late Apostle William Lee Bonner. Iris was a licensed social and senior missionary in the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ and was appointed president of the Aides to the Pastor missionary group in 1999 and president of the Social Missionaries in 2002 by Apostle Bonner. Iris received numerous certificates of appreciation for serving as an altar worker, a missionary, and Sunday school teacher. She was a prolific teacher of the Word of God, faithfully dedicating over 20 years to missionary service. In 2016, she continued her spiritual journey, attending and teaching at Miracle Deliverance Temple under the guidance of Pastor Doris Shuler.

Iris leaves to cherish her memory, two sisters, LaShelle J. (Donald) Pierce-Wilson and Kendra Pierce of Detroit, Michigan; one brother, Anthony “Tony” Cooper of Blythewood, South Carolina; one nephew, Pierce Wilson, and four nieces: Kiera McFarlan, Chicora Cooper, Toni Cooper, and Brooke Wilson; one maternal aunt, Linda Hall of Lugoff, South Carolina; one paternal uncle, Harvey B. Pierce of Columbia, South Carolina; and a host of loving friends and brothers and sisters in Christ, all of whom loved and will miss her dearly.