Maxine Lord

She was born Dorothy Maxine Lake, December 2, 1924, in a farmhouse that her mother had grown up in, located in southwest Missouri, near the town of Billings. Her newlywed parents in their mid-forties had met in Joplin, MO, in a restaurant where her mother was working.

At the tender age of twelve, Maxine watched her mother suffer a long illness. Told one day by the doctors that her mother would soon die, Maxine received permission to walk to town to make a phone call to her half-sister, living in Iowa. The sister, a Christian Science Practitioner, said not to worry, that she would pray for their mother. That evening, upon her sister’s arrival, Maxine witnessed her mother rise from her “death” bed, get dressed, and eat a full dinner. Her mother lived for 20 more years. This healing made a deep impression on Maxine.

At 17, Maxine’s parents sent her off to Kansas City, to enhance her opportunities to live a larger life than what the farm community could offer. Maxine enrolled in Kansas City Business College. After graduating, she went to work for Southwestern Bell Telephone Company.

In 1946, she met Franklin Russell Millin, Jr., whom she married in 1947. Maxine’s life for the next 25 years was centered around her husband and their four children. At the expense of much criticism, but supported by her husband, she made the decision to raise her children in Christian Science.

On May 20, 1957, Maxine was home alone with her children, as the Ruskin Heights tornado tore down their street, ripping their house from its foundation, floor and all. Minutes earlier she had gathered her children into the basement. Hearing the crashing sound of the tornado approaching their house, she led her children in the Lord’s prayer. All of them survived. Her husband, away when the storm hit, tracked his family down in the wee hours of the following morning.

Maxine supported her husband in political ambitions after the tornado. Eventually, he was appointed U. S. Attorney by President John F. Kennedy. This gave Maxine entrance into the political world of Washington, where she met and dined with Robert Kennedy and his wife, Ethel.

In the early 1970’s, Maxine’s husband left her and she went through a debilitating year of grief. Finally, one day she went to apply for a job as an aide in a Christian Science nursing home. She was hired. Within three years she became the Nursing Home Administrator, after taking and passing several courses. It was in this role that she met her second husband, Paul Lord, a Christian Science Practitioner. After his passing in 1988, Maxine went on to live an independent life in their comfortable home near the Country Club Plaza.

In 1999, Maxine began to experience health problems that for the first time in her life her prayers in Christian Science were not healing. Her daughter admitted her to St. Luke’s hospital, where Maxine experienced a heart attack and then open-heart surgery. She went on to live independently in her home for several more years.

In 2008, Maxine gave up her large house and moved into a comfortable apartment in John Knox Village. She entered the hospital again. A few days later she contracted a disease in the hospital that nearly took her life.

After several months of recovery, she became a resident of Garden Terrace of Overland Park. Here she led an active life painting, participating in bible study, live music concerts, day trips and regular exercise. She loved her room, filled with pictures of her family. Sitting in her recliner, she could look through a large picture window out onto a beautiful colorful garden. She delighted in watching the birds squabble over the food in the feeder at her window. Most of all she loved visits with her children and grandchildren when they came to the Nursing Home.

On June 24, 2013, at 6:30 in the evening, Maxine drew her last breath in her room at Garden Terrace as her daughter sat with her stroking her arms. Maxine had been visited during the day by several of the staff who so lovingly watched over her and cared for her during the last four years.

A Memorial service will be held at 1:00 p.m. Friday, June 28, at Mt. Moriah & Freeman Funeral Home, 10507 Holmes Road, Kansas City, MO.

Maxine is survived by her four children and their spouses: son David Millin (Carol), Belton; daughter Christina Kraft (Bill Wright), Kansas City; daughter Jennifer Hill (Marshall Rolon), Belfast, ME, and daughter Carolyn Hinkle (Brad), Shawnee, KS. She also leaves a grandson, Joel Kraft Portland, Oregon, a granddaughter, Ena Lupine, living in Paris, France, and a beloved niece, Barbara Williams of Lee’s Summit, MO.