Millie Gill

A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 11, at Trinity Temple Assembly of God, located at 16th Street and Hermosa Drive in Artesia for Mill Lee Gill of Artesia, New Mexico.

Pastor Bobby Argo will officiate at the services, with internment to follow at Twin Oaks Memorial Park. Pallbearers will be Eddie Forlines, Casey Wilson, Kent Bush, Isreal Bush, Patrick Bowen, and Jarod Bowen. Honorary Pallbearers will be Nickolas Seibel, Robert Gill, Johnny Puckett, Jonathan Puckett, Jr., and Jeremiah Bush.

Millie Lee Stephens Gill, 92, formerly of Artesia, continued her walk with the Lord early Sunday morning, Dec. 6, 2015 at Lakeview Christian Home in Carlsbad, New Mexico.

Mrs. Gill was born Nov. 11, 1923, in Clovis, New Mexico the youngest of the nine children, to James Carrol Stephens and Mary Jane (Whitfill) Stephens.

The family moved to Artesia when Mrs. Gill was two years old, and she lived there for her entire life prior to entering Lakeview in 2009. Despite being born legally blind, she excelled in the Artesia public schools through the 8th grade, when she was offered a scholarship to the New Mexico School for the Blind in Alamogordo - an opportunity which her father would not allow her to accept.

She met and married Louis Robert Gill in 1941, and gave birth to Evelyn Elaine in 1942. Mr. Gill joined the United States Army in 1943 and was serving in the European theater,during World War II, when their second child, Louis Robert, Jr. was born in 1944. After Mr. Gill's return home, Debra Jean came in 1950 and Peggy Lynn was born in 1956.

Mrs. Gill was introduced to her Savior around 1955, the beginning of a relationship which would sustain her throughout the rest of her life. Mr. Gill left the family for California shortly after Peggy's birth, and Mrs. Gill supported the family of five despite her disability and lack of formal education. She took in ironing, ran the childcare service at the First Baptist Church, Artesia, for 25 years, cleaned houses and businesses around Artesia and provided private childcare for a number of families - walking here and there across the city with a song in her heart and on her lips. She was most proud of what she considered her true vocation, her service as a lay minister, through which she was invited to travel throughout eastern New Mexico, west Texas and southern Colorado, ministering in small churches and homes.

Later in life, she also had the opportunity to travel on mission trips to Israel, Switzerland and Hawaii. She loved to travel with her children and grandchildren, visiting California, New England, Colorado and Oklahoma by bus and plane. She began line dancing competitively with the Senior Olympics team from the Artesia Senior Center, competing several years at the state level.

Mrs. Gill had a love for life and for the Lord, and was assisted throughout her life by hundreds of friends and volunteers who provided transportation, helped her maintain her home and provided companionship. She and her family were and are grateful for this community support, which allowed her to live alone in her own home, continuing her work and ministry until the age of 86.

She is survived by her son, Louis Robert Gill II and his wife, Carole, of Poteau, Okla., daughters Debra Jean Seibel of Silver City, N.M. and Peggy Day Johnston of Novato, Calif., friend and caregiver Jenny Forlines and her husband, Eddie, of Artesia, as well as eight grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her parents, her four sisters and four brothers, and her oldest daughter, Evelyn Elaine Husted.


In lieu of flowers, the family asks consideration of a contribution to the Friends of the New Mexico Library for the Blind & Physically Handicapped in Santa Fe, which provided free access to the large-print books and books on tape that Mrs. Gill enjoyed throughout her life.

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