Mildred E. Lamb

Mildred “Millie” Lamb made her final exit peacefully in the early hours of April 20, 2012, at the age of 92. She came into the world as Mildred Porter on November 2, 1919, one of a set of identical twins. Her sister, Barbara Porter Reynolds, slipped away more than 10 years ago, just as the twins had settled into a newly reunited life together as part of the Wesley Palms retirement community overlooking Mission Bay. As children, they grew up in the San Diego neighborhood of Mission Hills at a time Millie would later describe as “idyllic and innocent.” Their doting parents, Clem and Norma Porter, dressed them identically well into their teen years, as many family photos can attest. Newspaper clippings from the time casually refer to the academically gifted pair as those “popular Porter twins.” Millie and Barbara culminated their formative years by graduating with distinction from San Diego High School, Class of 1937. The twins then pursued different paths. Barbara chose to study nursing (health care was her lifelong calling that followed her throughout moves to several California cities). Millie remained in her hometown to attend San Diego State College (now San Diego State University). A music-theater student with an expressive soprano voice, Millie met the love of her life, natural baritone Bernard Dale Lamb, as a junior in 1940 during a college production of the romantic light opera “The Desert Song.” They married two years later and embarked on a blessed life together that lasted 46 years, until Bernard’s passing in early 1989. They quenched their musical passions by performing a combined 28 leading or featured roles in numerous Starlight Opera productions in Balboa Park from the late ‘40s through -- for Millie, featured 11 times -- the early ‘60s, 15 seasons in all. Due to their box-office popularity as individual performers (“Two shows drew twice the audience,” Millie once observed wryly), producers only cast them together once – for a reprise in 1953 of “The Desert Song,” which remained their favorite light opera. While Bernard focused on a well-respected career as an accountant, Millie continued to perform for numerous civic organizations and causes and as a soloist with the Point Loma Presbyterian Church choir for many years. Millie was active in a host of San Diego cultural and philanthropic organizations, including P.E.O., Wednesday Club, San Diego Symphony Women’s Committee, San Diego Opera Guild, San Diego Women’s Philharmonic Committee and Music Makers. She also performed hundreds of smaller Starlight shows at San Diego luncheons, banquets and conventions as part of the “Starlighters” entertainment troupe. Despite the hectic schedule, they also lovingly and generously raised two children born 15 years apart, Lisa (born Dale) Melou of Sherman Oaks and John R. Lamb of San Diego. At the age of 80, Millie was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, which typically strikes in childhood. She fought it bravely, as she did a subsequent small stroke and, finally, advanced dementia. Nurses at the Cloisters of Mission Hills, where she lived with loving care in her final years, frequently noted that Millie, resilient to the end, continued to sing whenever asked. Millie’s survivors include her two children, grandchildren Erica Runzel of Ramona and Sabrina Grossman of Argyle, TX, three great-grandchildren, and nieces Nancy W. Smith and Phyllis Bloom of San Diego. A private ceremony is scheduled at Fort Rosecrans, where she will rejoin Bernard, a World War II Navy veteran, for eternity. In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations to San Diego Hospice (www.sdhospice.org), the American Diabetes Association (www.diabetes.org), the Alzheimer’s Association (www.alz.org), or the Starlight Musical Theatre(www.starlighttheatre.org).