Memorial services for Stella Mildred Adams (Auvenshine), 91, of Brownfield will be 10am, Saturday, August 6, 2011 at Brownfield First United Methodist Church. Burial will be in Terry County Memorial Cemetery under the direction of Brownfield Funeral Home.
Mildred passed away Thursday, July 28, 2011 in Brownfield. Mildred, daughter of William M. Adams and Ethel Treadaway Adams, was born January 1, 1920 at 220 W. Broadway in Brownfield, Texas. She graduated from Brownfield High School in 1937 as Salutatorian of her class. She entered Mary Hardin-Baylor on an academic scholarship. She then transferred to Baylor University and graduated from there in 1941 with a BA in Journalism and Business. She was the 1st woman editor of the "Baylor Lariat." During World War II Mildred worked in Civil Service as the Chief Clerk of Aircraft Maintenance at Alamogordo Army Air Base. It was there that she met her husband Leland Auvenshine. They were married November 11, 1944, in Brownfield. He passed away in 2003. After the war Mildred worked for Magnolia Petroleum in the district office at Oak Grove. They then moved to Kansas and spent the next 20 years in that state. Mildred started teaching in an elementary school in Wichita, Kansas, and taught 11 years in three different locations in that state. She then moved to Houston, and obtained a position as a teacher in an inner-city school where she taught for 10 years. She and Leland divorced in 1974. Mildred moved back to Brownfield in 1979 and spent ten years teaching in Union I.S.D. She retired in 1989. She was a member of Brownfield First United Methodist Church, American Association of University of Women, Daughters of the American Revolution, Colonial Dames, Texas Retired Teachers Association and National Educators Association. She had a special love for the Terry County Historical Society and Terry County Cemetery Association. Mildred is preceded in death by a brother, Kyle Adams and 2 sisters, Irene Paddack and Mary Nell Royer; a son, William Leland Auvenshine; a daughter, Susan Stanfield who left identical twin daughters, Crissi and Carrie, that she adopted and raised as her own daughters.
Mildred is survived by her children, Nancy Jane Bellwood and Robert Allen Auvenshine; 9 grandchildren, Larry Auvenshine, Mike Auvenshine, Rob Auvenshine, Dan Zwickel, Paula Arwood, Crissi Hawkins, Carrie Mattes, Ken McBeth and Michael Knowles; 8 great grandchildren; a brother, Tom Adams and his wife Marilyn of Brownfield.
The family suggests memorials to Brownfield First United Methodist Church or Mildred Adams Memorial Cemetery Fund, 500 W. Main, Room 104, Brownfield, TX 79316
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