Sammie Laura Frierson Mills

MILLS, SAMMIE LAURA passed away peacefully September 17, 2026, at her home in Terrell Hills, Texas. Sammie, the only child, was born June 24, 1933, to parents Docia Estelle Frierson and Robert Ethan Frierson, Jr.; in Gunsight, Texas.

When Sammie was young the family made Pampa, Texas their home. As a child in Pampa, she studied the piano which became a lifelong pursuit. Graduating Pampa High School in 1951 she took off on her college adventure to Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia. She met the love of her life in high school, Sidney Mills. They dated in high school, and she graduated a year before Sid. After her first year at Agnes Scott, she transferred to West Texas State University where Sid was attending. At the Christmas break on December 20, 1953, they were married in the Presbyterian Church in Pampa. Following a honeymoon trip to New Orleans, the newlyweds completed their education, and the Mills family acquired a ranch just north of Sharon Springs, Kansas. Sammie earned a bachelor's degree in English with a minor in Chemistry and upon graduation they moved to the Mills Ranch in Sharon Springs.

While living on the ranch Sammie enjoyed gardening and grew beautiful roses and flowers in the beds. Sammie also knew how to use a pitchfork to get the tumbleweeds out of the fences and yard. She also did some trap/skeet shooting as a young lady and that skill came in handy on the ranch, killing rattle snakes that were in the front yard. She taught English at Wallace County High School for a year and later would substitute teach when asked. While living on the ranch two sons were born, Brett Ryan Mills and Kirk Evon Mills. Her interests were wide and varied and included the United Methodist Church where she was a member for many years and was the organist most Sundays. She also would play for weddings and was a 60-year member of the Goodland Federated Music Club. Her interests also included the P.E.O. Club where she was a long-term member and officer. She treasured her friendships and bonds with her P.E.O. sisters in Kansas and Texas. Bridge, a game she learned from her mother, was also something she delighted in and achieved her Life Masters recognition playing in tournaments in Kansas, Colorado, and Texas.

Sammie also enjoyed jogging, downhill snow skiing, bicycling, figure skating, and tennis. Her jogging led her to participate in the Turkey Trot, an eight-mile race around White Rock Lake in Dallas, Texas on Thanksgiving Day and an eleven mile run through the prairie of Western Kansas on the Butterfly Overland Dispatch which was an historic 1860s freight and stagecoach route across Kansas. In the winters on the ranch when the pond would freeze over, she would have Sid make a windbreak and seating out of hay bales and would invite friends over for an ice-skating party complete with a bonfire to warm the soul and chili cooking over the fire for a warm meal and lanterns on the ice to guide the skate.

If you could not find her in the garden, at the ranch, or a bridge game, chances are she was on the tennis court playing tennis. Sammie had a great appreciation of nature and the outdoors and in the Spring when the birds were migrating, she would have a copy of the 'Birds of North America' and would document in the book the date and bird she would spot. This continued to her years on South Padre Island where in the Spring she would watch for birds to fall out as they reached land on the island when they were migrating. She particularly took delight in the colorful species including the Painted Buntings, Indigo Buntings and Tanagers. She positioned a bird feeder in her home near the windows to the garden.

In her time in Sharon Springs, she was active in the Republican party and held office in the Wallace County Republican Women's club. When the Bicentennial of 1976 was on the horizon, she was eager to learn what celebration would be planned for Wallace County. Upon inquiring, there were no plans as of yet, and she volunteered to be the County Chairman for the Bicentennial. About the same year she took up flying in an effort to be able to take over if something happened to Sid when he was flying the family among Texas, Kansas and Nebraska where the family had business/ranching interests. After a one-hour introductory lesson she was hooked and in a short time became the first female pilot in Wallace County, Kansas.

The family also was involved in breeding and racing thoroughbred horses. They ran horses on tracks in New Mexico, California, and Kentucky; and would attend the sales at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky. Sammie loved studying the bloodlines and enjoyed watching the races in person and in later years on television.

Sammie lived full time on the ranch until the Fall of 1980 when they built a home in Goodland, Kansas; where she lived until moving back to Texas. Often in the Springs she enjoyed traveling the back roads in the Hill County and the coastal plains admiring the wildflowers. In 1997 Sammie and Sid started wintering in South Padre Island, Texas and spending the summers in Kansas. She had many friends from SPI visit them in Kansas and friends from Kansas visit them in the winters on SPI. In December of 2016 Sammie and Sid moved to a new home they built in Terrell Hills, Texas, to be close to her family. Upon moving to Terrell Hills Sammie took great comfort in attending the First Presbyterian Church in San Antonio and enjoyed the Reverend Doctor Robert Fuller's sermons. At each home Sammie had beautiful gardens that only she could create. Sammie wrote recently, referring to her home in Goodland (Kansas), one of her memories was "at midnight at 320 Acacia, Rudy (her beloved Scottish Terrier) and I sat in my summer garden on a bench watching the view at nighttime at how beautiful everything was at that time especially how beautiful the white brick home was." It was a full moon night. She enjoyed her garden right up to her last breath, where she was surrounded by friends, family, and her dog.

Sammie was preceded in death by her parents Robert and Estelle Frierson, her husband Sidney Mills, her in-laws Nona and R. D. Mills, Leona and D. L. Hale; and Doug ('Ty') Mills, Jr. She is survived by her sons Brett Ryan Mills (Austin, TX), Kirk Evon Mills (Terrell Hills, TX), her beloved Scottish Terrier Dude; sister-in-law Gertie Mills (Pampa, TX); niece Sidney K. Mills (Amarillo, TX); and nephews Matthew Douglas Mills (Shamrock, TX); and Steven Lynn Hale (Miami, TX), as well as numerous great nieces, a great-nephew; great-great nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Sammie's name to the First Presbyterian Church, 404 N. Alamo, San Antonio, Texas 78205; 210-226-0215, where her memorial service is scheduled for Friday, October 9, 2026, at 1100 a.m.