Pearl Amelia Bigler was born on January 22, 1898 in Bradford, Pennsylvania, to George Abram Bigler and Hattie Amelia Bull Bigler. Following Pearl’s birth, her family lived in both Panama, New York, and Charleston, South Carolina, before settling down in Macon, Georgia. Upon arrival in Macon, the Bigler family joined the East Macon Baptist Church, where Pearl was baptized on March 15, 1908. In January 1914, the family changed churches and joined the Tabernacle Baptist Church, also in Macon.

The Bigler family experienced financial difficulties that caused gaps in the Bigler children’s educations. A friend of Pearl’s told her about Martha Berry and her schools for underprivileged children in Rome, Georgia. While also working 8 hours a day, Pearl attended the Berry School and brought her education to the early high school level. Following her enrollment at the Berry School, Pearl also briefly attended the Woman’s Missionary Union Training School (Louisville, Kentucky), the Baptist Bible Institute (New Orleans, Louisiana), South Carolina Baptist Hospital (Columbia, South Carolina), and Bessie Tift College (Forsyth, Georgia). While attending Tift College, Pearl finished her high school course and also received a Bachelor of Arts degree in June 1926. The Pearl Amelia Bigler Papers contains scrapbooks and yearbooks from her enrollments at the Berry School and Tift College.

Pearl’s desire to become a Baptist missionary began as a child. According to her testimony, she heard God tell her at age nine that, “I want you to be a foreign missionary for Me, you ought to go and tell of me to those who have never heard.” Upon graduation from Tift College, Pearl learned that the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention did not have the funds to send her to Brazil. However, she received a gift of $400 from Mrs. H. H. Tift and went out as a missionary from the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Macon, Georgia in December 1926. This church supported her financially while she did mission work with Reverend and Mrs. Reno in Victória (Vitória), Brazil. After a year in Victória, Pearl went to the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul and started what would later become the Good Will Tabernacle Baptist Church in Porto Alegre. She also helped establish the Sinal (or Signal) Church in Esteio and several “preaching points” in the state.

After approximately forty years in southern Brazil, Pearl returned to Macon, Georgia, in the fall of 1965 due to failing health. On April 24, 1967, she returned to Brazil to enjoy her retirement years. Pearl died of a heart attack on September 1, 1969, in Esteio, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. At the time of her death, she was survived by her brother Ernest Bigler, nephew Leroy Bigler, great-nephew Bobby Bigler, and great-nephew Jimmy Bigler.