Peggy Ann Mills

Peggy Ann Mills
(August 10, 1932 - April 7, 2024)

After completing a long life among us, Peggy died peacefully early on the morning of April 7 at Alta Vista Senior Living Community in Prescott, Arizona. She resided for several years in Prescott Valley before her move to Alta Vista.

Peggy was the youngest and last surviving of five children of Cecil and Fern Oswalt. She was born at home on the family farm in Poneto, Indiana. Her formative years there engendered her love for nature and animals. While a student at Manchester College, she married Samuel Mills and began a family. Her three sons, Jeffrey (Wollaston, Massachusetts), Jonathan (Laurel, Maryland) and James (Warwick, UK and Barnard, Vermont), survive her. She also leaves three grandchildren, Lindsay (Moscow, Russia), Claudia (Adelaide, Australia), and Louis (Boston, Massachusetts), two great-grandsons, Jasper and Leo, and several nieces and nephews.

After having lived in Illinois, Indiana, and upstate New York, Peggy and her family returned to Illinois, where she finished her Bachelor's and Master's degrees at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, as well as a Master's in Library Science at Texas Woman's University in the early 1990s. She began her career as a librarian, first at an elementary school, and then at three community colleges: John A. Logan Community College in Carterville, Illinois, Garland County Community College in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nevada. Peggy enjoyed working with the design and breaking ground for the library facility in Reno. She also served on several accreditation teams for the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.

While in Reno, Peggy also became active in Rotary International and was also a radio personality. She was a member of the Red Hat Society there, and she joined the local chapter when she moved to Prescott Valley in her retirement. Her last years in Reno, Surprise, Arizona and Prescott Valley were some of her happiest, spending over a decade with her partner, John Attenborough, who passed away in 2018.

Peggy enjoyed reading all types of literature, encouraging others to make use of public libraries. In her early adult years, she was a singer and pianist, and made sure all her sons were musically literate. She encouraged students, particularly women, to follow their career desires no matter their age, as she had begun to do in her late thirties. Peggy will be remembered for her charming smile, her innate ability to encourage and mentor folks who got a late career start, and her ability to adapt to new challenges with determination and grace.

Burial will be private.