Mildred Catherine McGill

Mildred Catherine McGill, 95, died peacefully on March 21, 2016, at the Hospice of the Valley in Glendale, Arizona, slipping away just before midnight of congestive heart failure. Born November 29, 1920, in Phoenix, Arizona, to Cressie Clyde Bayless and Gladys Bell, Millie graduated from Glendale High School and for a time attended Arizona State College in Tempe, majoring in Home Economics.

In 1939, Millie married Clyde Raymond McGill of Glendale, Arizona, a technical wizard and aeronautical pioneer of the time. They soon moved to Southern California where their children Judy and Gary were born in Glendale, California. For the duration of World War II, Clyde worked for Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in Burbank, California, building P-38 twin engine fighter aircraft and Hudson bombers.

After the war and back in what has become known as the Valley of the Sun, the couple and their two small children homesteaded in the undeveloped desert north of what is now Loop 101. In the shadow of the Hedgepeth Hills and west of the Black Canyon Stage Road, they made adobe bricks by hand to build a home, hauled water and lived with the limited electric power available from their diesel generator.

As their small ranch developed, Millie and Clyde made room for community and church activities including a role in the founding of the Church of all Christian Faiths and membership in the Farm Bureau of Arizona. They were active for many years in conservative political organizations including the John Birch Society and in support of campaigns to elect Barry Goldwater. For many years Millie has been the lynchpin and host of the annual reunions of the Glendale High School Class of 1938, by now a very select group.

Together, Millie and Clyde founded and operated a successful mail order book store business, meantime developing on their property McGill Field to accommodate light and ultra light aircraft flown by family members and friends.

In later years, Millie and Clyde traveled extensively throughout the contiguous US states and Canada in their Toyota camper and then farther afield by cruise ship - a pleasure Millie continued to enjoy after Clyde's death in 1999.

A role model and teacher to her children and grandchildren, a constant companion and supporter of her husband and a delightful friend of many including a little known group, the Bailey Girls, Millie had a smile for all and never lost her sense of humor, joking recently that her driver's license which had just been renewed would now expire on her 100th birthday.

Mildred McGill is survived by her two children, Judy Christie Argetsinger and Gary E. McGill Sr., five grandchildren, eight great grandchildren and a great great granddaughter.

May God Bless our mother Millie and may she rest in peace beside her beloved Clyde.

An evening visitation will take place on Monday, March 28, from 4 to 6 PM at the Phoenix Memorial Park Chapel, 200 W Beardsley Road. A memorial service for Millie will be the following morning at 10 AM in the same location followed by a reception and then internment in the adjoining Phoenix Memorial Park. All friends of Millie and her family are welcome. In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to the Hearing Loss Association of America and the Glendale, Arizona, Historical Society.