Our bright, loving Mother JOSEPHINE HUNT MILLS passed away on Sunday, May 5, 2024. Born in rural Georgia on July 6, 1924, Jo marked her one hundredth Thanksgiving, Christmas, and spring in Pflugerville, Texas, near grown children. Remembering herself as a child too timid to draw well water on her own, she’d also recall taking a bus at seventeen from her hometown Blakely to start her B.A. at Georgia State College for Women in Milledgeville. She’d tied for high school valedictorian, and professors soon recognized her perfectionism. At the end of her first semester, Pearl Harbor was attacked.
By her second year, GSCW dorms doubled up to accommodate a Women’s Navy Reserve unit, but Josephine maintained her excellent coursework. She was short just a few correspondence credits, when, in May, she took a clerical job in Oak Ridge, TN, for the summer. “Was it exactly 79 years ago?” she wondered recently that she and PFC Gene Mills had a second date in a simple military base sanctuary. Josephine Hunt, who became this wonderful man’s bride only a few months later, was astounded at his fine singing voice. Her three generations of descendants know about this couple’s first date, after she had been given the task of selling dance tickets. She was really too shy for sales, but she never excused herself from an assignment. When she asked Gene Mills if he wished to buy a dance ticket, his answer made her ask, “Just one?” Our future dad ran out to borrow another dollar, came back up to Jo’s desk, and said, “I’ll buy two if you’ll go with me.” The rest is sweet history of the most peaceful, compassionate, uplifting kind. (Jo and Gene Mills enjoyed 62 earthly years together.)
After Gene’s consulting engineer work took their young family from Kansas to Mass., N.J., N.Y. and MI, the couple bought a home in Houston to finish raising their 4 children (Gary, Judy, John, Ken). Our mother was just as appreciative of their music practice sessions as she’d been hearing their dad sing and play the piano—trumpet, flute, clarinet, and trombone scales coming from all corners of the house. We don’t know how our mom persevered to transform a sandy lot into a garden paradise over the years. We don’t know how our mother managed to serve as a Girl Scout Leader and a Cub Scout Den Mother at the same time, but it must have sparked her love of family camping trips. We don’t know how she drove across Houston to UH to finish her TX teacher certificate before college costs for us four, but she did that, too. We could not be more proud of her having volunteered for Houston ISD’s faculty ethnicity crossover in the sixties. Our mother was unshakable in her belief that God meant for all kinds of people to learn about and rejoice in each other’s unique lives. Jo and Gene Mills always welcomed adult children and grandchildren back into that home on Carvel Lane, and they were very appreciated as friendly neighbors in the Heatherwilde Park senior community when they moved to Pflugerville in 2005.
Raised as and remaining a Methodist, but with failed eyesight and waning mobility, she came to embrace garden spots as her church. She prayed in private but she laughed to admit almost falling asleep in her oatmeal during her long, ritual gratitude prayer. In her last days, though, she was overheard to start that prayer, “Heavenly Father, thank you for my parents…” (Joseph Huddleston Hunt, Bertha Richardson Hunt). The children of JOSEPHINE HUNT MILLS could not be more grateful for their parents, or more amazed at how bravely and cheerfully our mother lived on her own for 17 years after our dad’s departure. Gene and Jo Mills are together now and forever, and we add to that certainty an enduring love for her extended family: surviving siblings Mary and Ben; children-in-law Judy, Doug, Deb, and Brita; grandchildren Robby, Abbie, Dylan, Rebekah, Kelsey and Ali (their spouses and in-laws); great-grandchildren Alex, Ian, Sophie, Trevor, Holly, Tess, Evie, Mariana, Nora, and Annie; many nieces and nephews.
As avid a quilter as she was a genealogist when her eyes still worked, Jo Mills left us with tangible treasures as well as precious memories. No mother could have been more gentle, forgiving, or inspiring. While we grieve the loss of her companionship, we will never feel bereft of her presence. (Gene’s and Jo’s urns will be put side by side at a private placement service in Cook Walden Park, Pflugerville, after what would have been Mom’s one hundredth birthday. Family members hope to gather later in the summer to remember her and comfort one another.)
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