Laurie Anne Duncan, who was born March 28, 1955 in Cincinnati, Ohio, passed away on February 5, 2025 at her home on Panama City Beach.

Laurie grew up in Wyoming (suburb of Cincinnati), Ohio and distinguished herself as a star athlete—her favorite sport being field hockey. Additionally, she was instrumental in helping the varsity volleyball team break the high school records! From Wyoming she went on to college at Denison University in Granville Ohio. She double-majored in mathematics and economics.

While at Denison, she was Commodore of the Sailing Club for three years, racing against other colleges in weekend regattas. She also picked up a favorite new sport, racquetball! And she found a love of cooking from Mrs. Ruth Schaff, a Home Economics teacher at a local high school (& the wife of the university's Registrar), learning new skills as Laurie assisted in serving guests at their hosted faculty parties.

Upon graduation, she joined IBM where she worked for 4 years in Youngstown, Ohio and 12 years in Atlanta, Georgia, supporting small businesses using IBM's accounting and financial software for their mid-range computers. She continued her passion for racquetball and began playing tournaments!

After leaving IBM, Laurie spent 8 years in various industries, licensed in insurance products for Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance and State Farm Insurance, working in a small bank and time as a travel agent.

The final 10 years of her career found Laurie in Estes Park, Colorado, living just outside the eastern gateway to Rocky Mountain National Park. What a MAGNIFICENT place to live! She became a corporate software trainer, taking training contracts for various Fortune 500 companies on their proprietary software.

Growing up, Laurie's parents instilled the importance of books, education and travel to learn about other cultures and she took that to heart BIG TIME!!! She traveled the world, by herself, with friends, and with family, including bicycle trips, hiking and snow-shoeing adventures, white-water rafting, and exploring life OFF the beaten path! One highlight was a 100 passenger Society Expeditions cruise to Antarctica with her sister and her very adventurous Mom in January 1990, the year the International Trans-Antarctica Expedition was completed.

On her travels, the Italian culture kept tugging on her heart strings. She found herself spending more and more time in the small medieval hill towns in central Italy. She left Italy during the Covid fiasco, seeing safety in the great State of Florida in early 2022.

God brought Bill and Cornelia Drake into Laurie's life, inviting her to attend Wednesday night Bible study at Saint Andrew Baptist Church, and also spending time with them reading scriptures, sharing the gospel and watching football games. Later on, she joined SABC and had a Believer Baptism with full immersion!

A mere five months after her baptism, Laurie was diagnosed with a rare form of ovarian cancer with a grim prognosis. Keeping her trust in God, choosing to live her faith "ALL IN", she chose to trust and obey that Jesus is all she needs. He never left her, instead he wrapped his loving arms around her, utilizing so many strangers, friends and prayer warriors!

GOD'S GRACE IS AMAZING!

As it is written, He is the Way and the Truth and the Light, whosoever believed in Him shall not perish but have Eternal Life.(John 3:16)

A celebration of life service will be held on Monday, March 10, 2025 at 1 p.m. in the Saint Andrew Baptist Church, 3010 W. 15th St., Panama City, FL. In lieu of flowers, the family request that memorials can be made to the St. Andrew Baptist Church Building Fund in memory of Laurie Duncan.