Mary Mildrum

“To live in the hearts of others is not to die” Thomas Campbell

OZARK…Mrs. Mary Ellen Pope Mildrum, a resident of Ozark, passed into eternity with her Heavenly Father on Tuesday morning, March 22, 2022. She was 86.

Family and friends are invited to celebrate her life on Friday March 25, 2022, at 10:30 A.M.  at Pleasant Ridge United Methodist Church, Rocky Head Community, near Ariton with Pastor Greg Brown and Pastor Anita Brown officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery. Fuqua Bankston Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.  The family will receive friends from 9:30 until 10:30 A.M.  Friday at the church.

She was born in Ariton, AL on August 30, 1935, to Samuel Z. Pope and Ollie Jacobs Pope. Mary is preceded in death by her parents along with an infant Great Granddaughter, Alaina Pearl Hardwick.  Mary was a 1953 graduate of Ariton High School where she was a basketball cheerleader, academically gifted, and won awards for typewriting.  She became a resident of Ozark after she married Allan I. Mildrum Jr. in June of 1956.  They had three children.  In her later years she lived at Somerset Assisted Living in Dothan and the Oakview Manor Health Care in Ozark, until her passing.

Mary is survived by her children, Linda M. Sullivan, Birmingham AL.  Cora M. Phillips (Jackie) Ozark, and David Allan Mildrum, Ariton.  She also has one brother, Samuel Thomas Pope (Betty) Crane Hill, AL.  She has six grandchildren: Celia A. Lawler (Jason), Grand Bay, AL., Patti L. Andrews (Brad) Vestavia Hills, AL., Wilson “Wil” Allan Sullivan (Christine) Birmingham, Holly P. Hardwick (Richard) Gloucester VA., Cassidy R. Mildrum, Skipperville, and EmmaRae Danner, Ariton.   There are also nine Great Grandchildren:  Andrew G.  and Ethan N.  Lawler, Grand Bay, AL., Hudson Reid and William Holden Andrews, Vestavia Hills, AL., Wilson Allan, Jr. and Marshall Del Sullivan, Birmingham, AL., Isabella Alaina and River Jack Hardwick, Gloucester VA., Nicholas “Camden” Durden, Jr., Skipperville.

Mary was a longtime member of Westview Heights Methodist Church in Ozark where she loved to sing, worship, and occasionally play the piano and boy could she sing and play!  She also loved to return to her home church at Pleasant Ridge United Methodist in the Rocky Head Community, near Ariton.  She read and studied her Bible faithfully as well as being an avid reader of fiction.  Her game was Scrabble and she was very very good! Her other talent was sewing…she was a skilled seamstress, making anything from our clothes growing up to our wedding dresses, prom dresses, and even Barbie doll clothes.  Friday was her “go to town” day and she loved shopping.  Mary was a collector of Madame Alexander and Christmas Barbie dolls.  She loved handwriting cards and letters and if you ever sent one to her or gave her a crayon-colored picture or a homemade craft…she kept it forever!

In lieu of flowers donations can be made in Mary’s memory through The Gideons International, who share Bibles around the world.  Providing Bibles, with your donation, is a meaningful way to leave a legacy and give another soul the opportunity to find everlasting life in Christ