Juliet C. Milk

M. Ann, Carol J., Martha E., Robert D. and Richard L. Milk

Our mother was born January 28, 1918 in Rossville, Tennessee to Charlie Chick and Blanche Gossett Chick. She was the much younger sister to Charles Henry Chick and Jack Robert Chick, especially beloved following the earlier death of one sister (Aileen) and five infants that did not survive. Her childhood was spent mainly in Monett, Arkansas where her father found work as a carpenter, well known for his circular staircases. After her father’s death during the economic depression, she moved to Memphis, living with her brother Jack and his wife Helen, and graduating from high school. She received her B.S. in Foods and Nutrition from what is today Memphis State University and at her death was the oldest living graduate of the institution. She received her M.S. in Home Economics Education from University of Tennessee in 1939, one of the few women prior to the 1950s to receive an advanced degree, particularly in the South. Juliet was later able to carry out additional graduate studies during two stints at Iowa State University in Ames ('51-’52 and ’57-’59) while Dick completed his doctoral work.

While in Knoxville, she met and was engaged to Richard, “Dick” Milk, an out-of-state student from Delaware County New York. They were married August 25, 1940, in Muskogee, OK, where Jack had been transferred by Swift and Company. Being convinced that she should first pay off her college loans before she married, Juliet completed a year of teaching Home Economics at the Southern Study Demonstration High School in the coal mining town of Benham, Kentucky. In Benham, she and her students began a school lunch program and she served as dietitian for the cooperative hotel. Juliet often told how that one year of teaching prepared her for the variety of teaching opportunities she would have around the world in the years to come.

Having a heart for international missions, Juliet at the time of his marriage proposal Dick had asked Juliet, if she would be willing to go with him to serve on the mission field. It took the time to walk the length of the bridge over the Tennessee River for her to answer, “Yes, she would go with him anywhere!” At that point, from 1941-1946, they were hired to train Methodist rural missionaries who wold be serving in in practical agriculture and home economics at the Scarritt College Rural Training Center in Crossville, Tennessee. The Board of Missions of the Methodist church then commissioned them as lay missionaries for the first rural vocational, co-educational school in Cuba, where they served until 1961. Juliet developed the home economics department, training teachers, developing materials and Spanish-language teaching aids; trained dietitians for the boarding school; established extension programs in the surrounding rural communities; and trained students to carry this work back to their local communities.

After leaving Cuba in 1961, Dick and Juliet were assigned to work with Cuban refugees fleeing to Jamaica, and then assigned as rural extension workers based in Durango, Mexico (’62-’66). Juliet worked with home and family programs, teaching in the deaconess school, writing curriculum for the normal school and worked with rural women’s institutes.

The Methodist Committee on Relief again asked for Dick and Juliet to serve a special assignment to Hue, Vietnam (’66-‘67) to work with reconstruction projects serving eight refugees villages. Juliet helped to establish a food for work program, training Vietnamese home economics teachers to work with adult education institutes and also training district home agents.

The Methodist Mission Board reassigned Dick and Juliet to rural work in central Mexico, based in the Federal District, where she continued as a professional Home Economist for the Methodist Church of Mexico. Juliet’s work focused on projects in nutrition and family life, programs for teachers and social workers, research for the National institute of Nutrition of Mexico, and organizing the first Home Economics Association in Mexico.

Health limitations forced Dick to leave the international mission field and he was hired to teach at Northeast Louisiana University in Monroe beginning in the fall of 1970. The variety of educational and cultural experiences gave Juliet the perfect background to be hired as Regional Public Health Nutritionist with Louisiana Department of Health where she worked from ’71 – ’73. When a new teaching position took Dick to Petersburg, VA, Juliet was again able to work as Virginia Regional Public Health Nutritionist for two years, and then as State Supervisor of Public Health Nutrition based in Richmond from ’75 – ‘80. It was during these years she was proud to have helped the Commonwealth accept enrollment in the U.S.D.A supplemental food and nutrition program for at risk pregnant women, infants and children (W.I.C.). The pendant in her office “Beat Utah” did not reflect a sports interest – it was her goal for Virginia to be the 49th (not the 50th) state to participate in a program that would result in improved pregnancy outcomes and improved health and learning for children.

Juliet retired in 1980, (the fall after Dick had died), moving in 1981 to Austin, Texas to be near more family. She became a member of Memorial United Methodist church, active in United Methodist Women and served as a district UMW officer as secretary and vice-president. She was also active in many other community and ecumenical organizations. She loved travel and made trips (road, train, extended stay or cruise) with family and friends to a wide variety of locations including Mexico, Alaska, Caribbean, Central America, South America, Australia, England, Spain, Greece, and Morocco. One of the most memorable trips was a 1998 Thanksgiving return to Cuba with three of her five children for the Cuban Methodist Church’s centennial celebration of the arrival of Methodist missionaries; the celebration was followed by a trip to eastern Cuba to re-unite with many former students and co-workers from the years of work in Cuba. Other Florida reunions of former students of the agricultural/ vocational school were held in Florida later.

Juliet is survived by her children: Richard Milk and spouse Olga of Austin, Robert Milk and spouse Rosa of San Antonio, Carol Milk Reyes and spouse Pedro of Lima, Peru, Martha Milk, of Hollister, CA, and Ann Klotz and spouse Joseph, Jr. of Roanoke, VA. She was always proud of each of her eleven grandchildren and nine great grandchildren, living in San Antonio, McAllen, Los Angeles, CA, Washington, DC, Lima, Peru, and Manassas, VA. Many nieces and nephews of both her and Richard’s families loving refer to her as “Aunt Julie”, or “the matriarch”; she has been the last of her generation, alive, a strong and inspirational woman.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Richard George Milk; her brothers Charles Henry Chick and Jack Robert Chick; and her grandson Charles “Carl” Gilbert Klotz.