Georgia E Mills

Georgia E. Mills, age 87, rural Raymond, widow of Leonard, died in the Prairie Lakes Hospital in Watertown on Saturday evening, March 27, 2010 after a brief illness. Funeral services will be held on Thursday, April 1, 2010 at 2PM in the First Presbyterian Church at Raymond with Pastor Donna Nickels officiating. Burial will follow in the Prairie Valley Cemetery at Raymond. Music will be presented by Deb Waldner as pianist with congregational singing. The congregation will sing How Great Thou Art and Amazing Grace. Honorary casketbearers will be all the members of The First Presbyterian Church and the Raymond American Legion Auxiliary. Casketbearers will be Keith & Barb Erickson, Shelly Keyes, Terry Severson, Mike Osborne and David Hink. Visitation will be held on Wednesday from 3-6PM at the Furness Funeral Home at Clark and after noon at the Church in Raymond of Thursday. Georgia Eleanor Mills was born on April 3, 1922 at home on a farm near McCracken, KS the daughter of Robert and Hannah (Derr) Sloan. She attended school in KS and graduated high school. It was during her senior year that she met, Leonard Hap Mills. They dated during that year, even though they attended different schools. After high school, he joined the service and Georgia worked for the Farm Bureau. During his military service, while Leonard was on a delay en route, they were married on July 27, 1944 in the parsonage of the United Lutheran Brethren Church in Kansas. They moved to Florida while he trained and then he went to Europe. Georgia worked at a grocery store in McCracken while he was overseas. After his discharge in 1945 they continued living in Kansas until moving to South Dakota in March of 1951. They bought a farm site near Raymond, SD, as buying a farm in South Dakota was much more affordable than Kansas, where they lived and farmed. Georgia loved the outdoors, whether it was helping in the milk barn or raising chickens. And raising chickens it was, 10,000 or more at a time. Georgia was in charge of the chicken ranch, from grinding the corn cobs for the bedding to a belt system to collect the eggs. She retired from the chicken business when she was 53. She worked for some 10 years at the Redfield State Hospital retiring when she was 65. After her retirement she continued her love of the outdoors by gardening. She also enjoyed fishing and reading. Prior to Haps death in 1989, they did some traveling around the United States and in Canada. She will long be remembered for her love of cooking and being a great cook, never really having or sharing many recipes. Georgia has continued to live on the farm, riding the four- wheeler on occasion, until last Thursday. She was a longtime devoted member of the First Presbyterian Church of Raymond, the Presbyterian Women and the Raymond American Legion Auxiliary. Preceding her in death were her parents, husband, and siblings, Emmett Sloan, June (Vincent) Higgins and Marjorie Jack (Vic) Moran. Grateful for having shared her life are her children, Richard Rip (Joan) Mills of Clark, Frank (Jaci) Mills of Crawford, Nebraska, John Mills of Clark and Sandra (Leland) Johnson of DeSmet; 6 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. She also leaves a brother Emerson Sloan of Kearney, Nebraska and a sister-in-law, Marge Sloan of Ponca City, OK. Arrangements are with the Furness Funeral Home at Clark where there is an on-line registry at www.furnessfuneralhome.com