Joan Mills, 75
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — Joan MacDonald Mills, 75, a former longtime Berkshire Eagle columnist, died Sunday, Aug. 26, 2001, at Fairview Commons Nursing Home.Born in Springfield on May 15, 1926, daughter of Norman and Laura Hickey MacDonald, she graduated from Newton High School in 1944 and from the University of New Hampshire in 1948.
During the 1960s and early '70s, while a resident of Housatonic, Mrs. Mills wrote a column for The Eagle titled "Grist for the Mills." She later was a field editor and columnist for Reader's Digest, from which she received more "First Person" awards than any of its writers. She retired in 1985, while living in Durham, N.H., and later moved to Great Barrington. She also had lived in California.
Mrs. Mills' writing style was conversational and straightforward. In a column published in The Eagle on Aug. 8, 1972, she described the pleasure she derived from doing simple errands in Stockbridge.
"A Saturday ago, a string quartet was playing informally on the library lawn as I went in. I stopped, suddenly overwhelmed by tender events. The day was so soft; people settled their grocery bags beside them and settled on the grass to listen. Lanky boys in cut-off jeans idled by on bicycles, wheeled by in whispers, and summer girls in long dresses and bare feet dreamily combed one another's hair to the music they had happened upon. I thought: How lucky I am."
She leaves two sons, John Christian "Chris" Mills of Housatonic and Robert Mills of Charlton; a daughter, Laurie Mills of Concord, and six grandchildren.
FUNERAL NOTICE — The funeral will be private. Donations may be made to HospiceCare in the Berkshires in care of FINNERTY & STEVENS FUNERAL HOME, 426 Main St., Great Barrington, MA 01230.