Betty Jo Mills

Betty was Mother, Mama, Nana: loving and patient, kind and gracious, artistic and adventurous, playful. She taught her girls how to skip rope, have picnics in the cemetery, hunt for seashells and love Anne of Green Gables. She got them their first library cards and didn’t mind if they stayed up reading all night in the summer. An accomplished cook, she made them rosemary chicken, beef bourguignon, paella and key lime pie. She loved to read, garden, play bridge, and make things with her hands.

A. J. was Daddy, Pop: courageous and independent, outgoing and gregarious, tender hearted, a grand storyteller. He loved people, was always looking for a new friend, always ready for an adventure. He tried to teach his daughters to fly, did teach them to play golf, shoot skeet, fish and catch tadpoles. He taught them how to be optimistic, strong, and to persevere. Ever curious, he was often at the Apple store tutorials for his iPhone 6.

Betty was born Sept. 9, 1923, to Cecil and Lucille Wise and grew up in Waxahachie. She loved to stay up late with her father, reading books side by side, and liked to help the town librarian during the hot summer months. She attended Trinity University but withdrew to help support her family after the death of her father.

A. J. was born in Olive Branch, Mississippi on Oct. 22, 1921, to Arthur Julius and Bunch Mills. He grew up on a farm, swimming in the Mississippi with his pet pig, Twisty Tail, and dreamed of flying. When he saw his first plane, lying in his parents yard, he knew he wanted to fly. He worked in the family market, proudly stocking his own section and, in his teens, played football and raced Indian motorcycles on dirt tracks.

WWII interrupted A. J.’s college football scholarship when he was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Army Air Force and assigned as an aircraft commander to the 460th Bomb Group in North Africa. Flying B-24’s, he completed fifty combat missions over Europe. Thus began a long career as an aviator, the second love of his life.

The first and longest love of his life was in Texas. A. J. had disciplined his radio operator for pilfering a silk parachute to take home to Waxahachie for a wedding dress for a girl he wanted to marry, though she was engaged to another. After the war, heading to a post in Bryan, Texas, he went to call on that same girl, Betty Wise, “a raven haired, blue eyed beauty of a gal”, and they fell in love. When her mother refused to give her blessing, A. J. told her, “Well Lucille, we’re off to be married, and I’ll just have to court you later.” Thus began an enduring and devoted union.

Their first post was in Boca Raton, Florida, where A. J. was Base Operations officer. His twenty-five year career in the Air Force took him to the Berlin Airlift, to the new B-47 jet bomber program as pilot and operations officer, to Command and Staff College, an assignment to SAC HQ, graduation from the Air War College, to a three year tour in Madrid, Spain and finally to a post as Commander of a B-52 SAC wing at Plattsburg Air Force Base in New York.

During their time in the Air Force, they called 15 places home. Betty approached each move with excitement and grace. She made dear friends, volunteered at schools and hospitals, planned wives’ events and travels, and was always ready for the late afternoon call from A. J. that he was bringing six or more home for dinner. She cherished the many places and people she met, and thought it a grand adventure.

Her daughters remember her blithe spirit and support in every new city, searching for their new favorite spots for playing outside, for pizza, for ice cream. She smocked their baby dresses, made their prom gowns, taught them to make beaded ornaments, arrange flowers, and make her famous Raggedy Ann tuna salad plates.

Facing a three-year post to the Pentagon, A. J. requested early retirement to accept a position as flight instructor at Boeing in Seattle, flying 727’s and testing the engines for the new 737.

Four years later, a banker friend in Boca Raton urged him to come join his bank, promising a new King Air that he could pilot as well. A. J. spent eight years at First Bancshares, serving as President of its insurance and mortgage companies. But the blue yonder called, and A. J. started Executive Air Charter, flying corporate clients, tennis and golf professionals, entertainers, politicians and former presidents, until retiring at the age of 82.

Their grandchildren cherish their memories of visits in Florida, the bright red door of their house and a Key Lime pie waiting to greet them, freshly cut gardenias by their beds, and fruit trees to climb. The blowfish Pop would catch and toss into their hands for them to watch inflate before throwing it back in the canal, tiny frogs to rescue from the swimming pool, sunrise breakfasts on the beach with cinnamon toast and hot chocolate, and lessons in bike riding and airplane flying.

Wanting to be closer to their daughters and their families, they moved to Dallas in 2008. They settled into a home in Presbyterian Village and quickly made friends in their new community, as they had so many times before. During this special time they gathered every Sunday for dinner with their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, four generations coming together, sharing each other’s company, cooking, eating, teasing, telling stories, being serious, being silly, arguing, laughing, and remembering.

Neither wanted to linger or be alone. After long and loving lives, shortly after their 70th anniversary, they went into the garden, watered the yellow roses that she so loved, and died together. They will be greatly missed and long remembered.

They are survived by two daughters, Mary Jane Mills Ryburn & husband Frank and Donna Mills Sands & husband David Holt of Dallas; granddaughters Francis Ryburn Barron & husband Branden and Elizabeth Mills Sands of Dallas, Laura Mills Sands & husband Diego Mora of New York, Eleanor Mills Ryburn of Oakland; grandson Austin Holt of Lewisville; great grandsons Jackson Moss Barron and Everett Mills Barron; sister Jim Wise Hightower & husband James of Waxahachie; brother Mac Wise of San Marcos, CA; and many nieces and nephews.